


SF9Unsolved

by kangchanhee



Category: SF9 (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghost Hunters, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Humor, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Based On Buzzfeed Unsolved, Buzzfeed Unsolved Supernatural, Comfort, Comfort/Angst, Demons, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Ghost Hunters, Haunted Houses, Haunting, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Not Beta Read, Not Good, Religion, Spirits, Supernatural Elements, believer!youngkyun, i'll have trigger warnings in authors notes before chapters, i'm not good with religion sorry so i'm sorry in advance, idk man, probably blasphemy somewhere??, skeptic!chanhee
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2020-08-10 01:40:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 30,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20127253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kangchanhee/pseuds/kangchanhee
Summary: have you ever wondered what it'd be like if youngkyun and chanhee were youtuber ghost hunters with the skeptic/believer dynamic? yeah, me too, but look no further because it is here and it's in writing!





	1. Chapter 1

“Hello, ladies, gents and dear m’theydies, and welcome to another episode of Youngkyun being a pussy!” Chanhee looked at the camera and started. He was immediately met with noises of disapproval from Youngkyun and hidden laughter from Taeyang who was behind the camera.

“We can’t start like this! I’ve never started an episode with _’hello and welcome to another episode of Chanhee being a prick’_,” Youngkyun protested fiercely. “We need a re-do,” he said and crossed his arms over his chest, letting a pout appear on his face. That made two very different reactions appear in the room - Chanhee looked at the older in disgust while Taeyang looked at him with sympathy in his eyes, not saying anything. Taeyang was quite anonymous as a camera-man and didn’t appear in episodes unless Youngkyun started flirting with him, which happened quite often but Chanhee quickly shut that down and usually edited it out.

“I think this is the greatest intro we’ve had yet. And don’t you want to get out of here sooner? We don’t have the time for a re-do,” Chanhee shook his head. “Just tell me about this place so we can explore.”

“We have just enough time for a re-do,” Youngkyun protested again. He got back a neutral expression and started again: “Hello, ladies, gents and cap’ns, and welcome to another episode of SF9Unsolved.”

“What are we exploring today, person-who-doesn’t-remember-I’m-editing-and-am-leaving-in-my-intro?” Chanhee smiled maliciously and cupped his face to make himself look cuter. “Are we fighting demons and ghosts or do you have something more interesting for us today, like, trolls and goblins? When are we gonna discover a dragon or something? I’m bored of the spirits already,” the boy laughed.

“Have I ever told you how much I can’t stand you before?” Youngkyun sighed. “We’re exploring the famous Kim-Lee-Oh hotel. It used to be a very good and well-known hotel until a serial killer went on a massacre and killed six people in their sleep and then himself, while resisting arrest.”

“Can six people be considered a massacre?” Chanhee pondered. “Is six enough to count as a massacre? Taeyang, can you google that, I’m genuinely interested,” Chanhee looked up. Taeyang signed that he didn’t have his phone with him and the younger sighed. “I have to do everything in this house, I swear to gods.”

“Please don’t use God’s name in vain,” Youngkyun murmured. 

“Sorry, Mr. God, I’ll make sure not to use your name too much, bae,” Chanhee winked and did finger guns at the ceiling.

“Chanhee, I beg of you,” Youngkyun hid his face in his hands. “This is already such a mess, I’m going to cry.”

“Do we have tissues? Please don’t cry, you’re very ugly crying, you don’t want everyone to see you crying, do you?” Chanhee laughed. “Tell us more about the werewolves and vampires that live here,” he looked at the older with a smirk on his face.

“There are no werewolves and vampires here,” Youngkyun cried out. “Hopefully,” he added. “Though there are some ghosts and a demon here. Finally, your species, you fucking demon,” Youngkyun rolled his eyes. “It is said that a demon possessed the killer who murdered those people who now haunt this place.”

“Oh, that’s fun. Demon, you have my full consent to possess me and kill Youngkyun. Don’t kill the cameraman because he’s delightful sometimes but Kyun can be killed. He did a ritual at home, so he should be protected. Consider this a dare,” Chanhee talked to the air. As expected, he didn’t get possessed, while Youngkyun looked at the younger in horror. It seemed like he had gone a tone or two paler.

“Chanhee, don’t tie me into this, I didn’t agree to it, please,” Youngkyun looked at the younger wide-eyed. “I do not enjoy getting murdered.”

“Tough luck, buddy, it’s the plan for tonight,” Chanhee shrugged. “Tell us about the place so we can go walk around, I wanna explore, I already sat in the car for an hour.”

“Well, if you stopped _interrupting me_, I could’ve finished by now,” Youngkyun rolled his eyes. “Anygay,” he shook his head as if to clear it, “yes. So, it is said that all six ghosts still haunt this place and the demon is somewhere around here, looking to possess someone again. Three of the ghosts are children - six year old twins and their older brother who was thirteen at the time of his death. Two of them are the parents - Lee Yerim who was thirty seven and Lee Chankyun, aged forty.”

“Were they all a family?” Chanhee asked curiously, earning a dirty look from Youngkyun. “And who’s the demon?”

“Yes, they were all a family, which, I guess, is kind of fortunate because if they have to go, then it’s better to go at the same time-”

“That’s just grim,” Chanhee made a face. “Better to not go at all, death isn’t advised by nine out of ten doctors. Anyway, I’m interested in the demon - I wanna get possessed, sounds like a fun experience. I’ve always wondered how it’d feel. I think it’d be quite fun, no?”

“No, absolutely not, you absolute weirdo,” Youngkyun protested. He had that look in his eyes that screamed - _’please stop, i’m dying inside’_. To be fair, that was often a look on him because Chanhee was really a person that could get someone to that stage fast. “There is not much information about the demon, it’s just that they possessed a random dude - the sixth ghost - and went on a killing spree. It’s said, though, that it often scares people that come here, as if they wanted the whole place to themselves.”

“Bad choice, honestly, why would anyone want to live here? There’s so much dust and the wallpaper’s peeling off the walls, I would hate living here. Mr Demon, I’m seriously judging you here,” Chanhee shook his head theatrically. The hotel didn’t even seem any kind of cosy or inviting - the walls were covered in spider webs and the floor seemed to be damaged by the rain that came in through the windows occasionally. Poor imaginary ghosts that had to live there for the rest of their… deaths. 

“Stop judging the demon, Chanhee. This place isn’t the worst we’ve been in, if we’re being honest,” he said. It was true - they had really gone to some questionable places before, gotten injured, too, having touched a glass shard or Chanhee having to run after Youngkyun when he gets too scared and accidentally tripping over something.

“It’s not the best either, therefore I am allowed to judge the demon as much as I please,” he said all-knowingly. “Do we go explore or are you telling us something more?”

“I was thinking of telling more about the killer but I guess I can do it a bit later since you’re so jittery today,” Youngkyun said and got up, pressing the button on the Go-Pro that was attached to his chest for it to start filming. Chanhee took the handheld camera and also got up. He started to immediately film Youngkyun’s face, doing multiple zoom-ins and unnecessary close-ups.

“Perfect, let’s go get this fucking bread,” Chanhee said. “Lead the way!”

“Okay, so now we’re going to the room that the murders happened in. It’s on the third floor. The number from the room was removed the morning of the murders and it was sealed so no one can enter it - after, of course, a priest came to bless it, so it wouldn’t get haunted but he left as soon as he entered the room. He, and I quote, had said: _'Whatever this is, is stronger than any of the blessings I can give, I’m sorry, good luck.'_, which is something I don’t enjoy saying while I’m here.”

“The priest seems like a pussy,” Chanhee snickered. “I’m sorry, Mr Priest, if you’re watching this but you should’ve just done the blessing and gone away, that way you would’ve showed that you have some courage,” the boy explained. “Even if it wouldn’t have worked.” 

“Chanhee, why do you do this? The priest did the best he could, I can’t with you,” Youngkyun shook his head in exasperation. “And what’s the point in doing it if it wasn’t going to work? At least he was honest.” 

“Yeah, I mean, I still think he was an absolute pussy but fair enough, you do you,” Chanhee shrugged. He looked over at Youngkyun who was currently inspecting every corner, as he tended to do when he was scared. Chanhee didn’t even understand why he got surprised at how cowardly the older was still but it was what it was. Maybe someday there would come a time that Youngkyun starts fearing actual real life danger, such as accidental drowning or running into a wall, getting injured and dying of an unknown illness at twenty-three years of age. 

“We’re here,” Youngkyun announced, standing in front of a door. It had graffiti drawn on it - Chanhee hated when insolent teens did that to buildings, it gave them so much more bad vibes that he couldn’t help but audibly sigh. “Would you do the honours?” 

Chanhee unceremoniously walked into the room and looked around it. It seemed like someone had lived there very recently - there were food cans scattered around and a dirty blanket on the bed. The mattress had stains of every colour of the rainbow, which almost made the boy throw up but he held it all in. 

“So, this is the room. The twins slept on the sofa and the brother slept on another mattress next to the bed. Apparently, it was on the side of the door so he was killed first. Next came the father. According to other hotel guests at that time, the mother loudly screamed and tried to defend herself but failed and the twins were too confused to even run so they were killed last,” Youngkyun explained. He cautiously looked around the room, as if something could suddenly jump out and scare either of them to death. 

“What did the other guests do? I imagine there would’ve been enough time for them to save at least one of the kids if they came to help because there must’ve been some time between the mum’s scream until the twins were killed. Were they all like - _’ah yes, this is a normal occurrence and now I shall get back to sleep, they seem like they’re having a dandy fun night!’_?” 

“Probably something more along the lines of _’can they please let us sleep it’s 3:37 am’_. The ones next door actually did call the front desk to complain about the noise,” Youngkyun laughed nervously. Chanhee watched the older take something out of his back pocket and he groaned the moment he realised what it was. “So this is a spirit box, y’all already know how it works but for the spirits in this room - you can use this to communicate with us.” 

Youngkyun turned it on and Chanhee made a face immediately, the noise always ended up being louder than he expected. The younger came closer to the boy who was manning the device to properly hear him over it. 

“Our names are Youngkyun and Chanhee, can you say them back to us?” the older started. It was funny - it had never happened, the closest they had come to hearing their names back was something along the lines of ‘young man and Bob’. 

_ ”No.” _

The ‘no’ was so clear that both of the boys started laughing immediately. 

“You do you, spirits. It’s our duty to offer,” Chanhee said in a serious voice. “Do you at least want to talk to us a bit? I imagine it can get kinda boring. Youngkyun here is very talkative, so he’d be a great company if you spoke back to us,” that was only half-true because while Youngkyun was incapable of shutting up, he was mostly quiet when it came to talking to _supernatural beings_. 

_ ”Boring.” _

“Kyun, I don’t think the spirits here enjoy our company. I find us pretty fun at times,” he said and crossed his arms over his chest, as if he was about to scold the ghosts, which he probably would if he believed in them. 

“I think they were talking about you,” Youngkyun barely kept his laugh in. 

“That’s rude,” Chanhee punched the older’s bicep and pouted. “I’m the most interesting person in this room. Taeyang’s a close second. You’re… the ninth. The ghosts and my fellow demon are way more interesting than you,” he stuck out his tongue as if that made his statement more convincing. 

_ ”Stop.” _

“Stop what?” Youngkyun asked, suddenly interested in the spirit box again. “If you want us to stop using this device, say that clearly. If you want us to stop doing something, say that clearly, too,” he instructed and looked at the device expectantly. 

Suddenly the spirit box turned off and it seemed like Youngkyun both lost a few years of his life and paled at least three tones. Chanhee, on the other hand, almost started laughing hysterically at the older’s reaction. Everything had a very easy explanation, even if Youngkyun didn’t believe in it. 

“The batteries died, we haven’t changed them since we got it,” Chanhee took the small box out of Youngkyun’s hands and put it in his back pocket. He didn’t want Youngkyun to start trying to make it work because the noise was too much for him to handle at this point. It felt like his eardrums would spontaneously combust if he had to hear one more second of radio static. 

“What if it wasn’t just the batteries?” he looked at Chanhee wide-eyed, looked a bit like a scared doe. Adorable look, almost adorable enough for Taeyang to stop manning the camera and go up to him. 

“It wasn’t ghosts, Kyun. I imagine the ghosts would very much like talking to us if they’ve had to be stuck here for decades,” he tried to put logic and reason in what he said - it didn’t really work on Youngkyun often but he still attempted. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw in end notes to avoid spoiling stuff!!

“Anygay, what do you think about spending a few minutes in this room alone? I find it quite cozy here. I can go first if you want,” he offered. Chanhee wanted to be done with this as fast as possible and then get back to the car and sleep - he hadn’t had enough of it for a while.

“I don’t want that. I really, _really_ don’t want that,” Youngkyun shook his head. “We’re still gonna do it but lord almighty I don’t want that,” he sighed. “Taeyang, do you need any help setting up the camera?” he asked softly, looking at their cameraman and smiling.

“No, it’s okay, you should get mentally ready first, shouldn’t you?” Taeyang smirked and gave Chanhee his camera to hold so he could put the second camera in a good angle on a shelf.

“Chanhee’s going first anyway, I have plenty of time to get ready,” he mumbled and turned his back on Taeyang to hide his blushing cheeks. Chanhee shook his head in disapproval - Taeyang and Youngkyun very obviously liked each other and he couldn’t handle that neither of them could admit their very obvious crushes on each other. Seokwoo and Chanhee often bonded over that when they went out on dates.

“Okay, that’s done,” Taeyang said. He came up to Chanhee to retrieve his camera, a playful glint in his eye. He looked at the younger and then at the open door, signaling that they could make a run for it and let Youngkyun be the one who stays there first. Chanhee wasn’t about to pass on an opportunity like that so he grabbed Taeyang’s hand and ran, closing the door behind him and holding it so Youngkyun wouldn’t get out.

“Guys, what the fuck? Let me out, I didn’t agree to this,” he banged on the door after almost breaking the handle. “Chanhee was supposed to go first, I’m not ready,” he complained.

“You have five minutes to spend there, make yourself comfortable. It’s like ripping off a bandaid, just do it,” Chanhee explained. The boy took out his phone and set up the timer for eight. “Don’t be a pussy, we’re right here anyway.”

“I can’t stand you. Taeyang, you’re excused because it’s your first offense but Chanhee… I’m going to beat you the heck up,” he threatened. The younger laughed at that and so did Taeyang - both of them knew Youngkyun was as soft as they couldn’t and wouldn’t even hurt a fly and the worst he could do to Chanhee was hug him too tightly.

“Okay, we’re now silent. Good luck, pal,” Chanhee warned. He signed for Taeyang to come with him - better to be useful while they’re at it and explore the building some more.

“So, while Youngkyun’s having fun alone in the murder room, I thought we could take a look in the other rooms,” he narrated. “The ghosts can move around, so, y’know, maybe we’ll catch one on tape,” Chanhee laughed, the boy hadn’t believed in anything supernatural since the age of eight and he wasn’t about to.

The boy started to climb up the stairs to the next floor, he looked around to notice every single little thing about the place. Chanhee found haunted places interesting for the _aesthetic_ of it all, graffitti, the broken windows, glass shards - everything around, dead and forgotten, it was interesting. The boy took a few pictures while he was there because if he was there with Youngkyun, the only thing he could do is listen to a whole lecture of how _’it’s disrespectful to the dead’_.

“I read in the script that apparently the killer himself stayed on the fourth floor so we can go and explore what’s there,” he said. “I really doubt Youngkyun’s going to be able to go there after staying the murder room for longer than necessary. So we have,” the boy looked at the timer, “exactly six minutes and twenty three seconds to look around the next floor before Youngkyun has to get out and I have to stay in the room.”

Chanhee looked at the hallway, it was completely empty, as expected. The silence there was a bit eerie but there was nothing he could do about it. He wasn’t scared because of the silence, he just didn’t enjoy it. The boy walked through it first, not opening any rooms and then turned on his flashlight and started looking at the doors and rooms behind them.

The first three rooms were all the same, nothing interesting - a bed, with the mattress all screwed up, probably by some animals, and the room just generally a mess, so the boy decided to skip a few rooms but he stopped in front of one door that was not touched by graffitti at all, while the rest had been severely drawn on.

He carefully put his hand on the handle and immediately yanked it away, feeling a sharp pain on his palm. Chanhee first looked at his hand that was now bleeding and then flashed his light on the handle only to find razors attached to it. The boy swore quietly to himself and held his hand tightly.

“Reason fifty one of why you don’t fucking explore buildings - you can be a victim of teens’ dumb fucking jokes,” Chanhee looked straight in the camera and complained in a pained voice. “Taeyang, do you have anything I could use for this?” he showed his hand to the older who looked at him in horror.

“What the fuck, Chanhee?” he exclaimed. “How did that- what-”

“Razors behind the handle, got cut, should’ve seen it coming. Do you have anything or should I ask for Seokwoo to come?” he asked again. His hand hurt a lot but he didn’t want to show it a lot. “Also, whoever did this?” the boy looked in the camera. “Fuck you. Fuck you loads, honestly.”

“I don’t have anything, I’ll call Seokwoo, let’s go down,” Taeyang suggested.

“Seokwoo can come up here, we can wait him by the murder room, I’m sure he won’t mind,” the boy said and led the way down to Youngkyun again. He tried to play it off as if nothing much happened but as he turned his back on the camera and Taeyang, he let a pained expression fall on his face and a tear or two fall down his cheeks. Chanhee heard Taeyang calling up Seokwoo and took a deep breath, he didn’t want to worry his boyfriend, so he attempted to calm down.

Chanhee looked at the timer, a bit of blood getting on his phone, and seeing as how there was only a minute more left, he decided to let Youngkyun out since he was already there for seven minutes, when he was supposed to spend only five there.

“Jesus Christ almighty!” Youngkyun exclaimed upon seeing Chanhee, it seemed like he hadn’t expected that just yet. “You have no idea how much you just scared me, fuck,” he put his hand on his chest as if to avoid his heart beating out of it.

“Pussy,” Chanhee murmured. “Time’s up, we have to wait for Seokwoo and then it’s my turn,” he said. Youngkyun raised his eyebrows at that, usually Seokwoo didn’t join them in shoots. He was only there because he worried about Chanhee and didn’t want him to get hurt, so he provided his _very adult supervision_. 

“Why do we need Seokwoo?” Youngkyun questioned.

“Oh, y’know, I miss him,” Chanhee said in the sweetest voice he could utter and then gagged at that. “Taeyang and I went to explore the fourth floor and some smartass decided to put razors on the back of the handle where I didn’t notice them and long story short now I’m bleeding, as people do sometimes.”

“What the fuck? Are you okay, does it hurt?” Youngkyun looked more worried than Chanhee who was, by the way, the actual hurt one in this situation. “Let me see,” he took Chanhee’s hand in his and looked at the injury. Even Chanhee hadn’t looked at it properly yet but now that he did, he realised that it wasn’t as bad as he expected it to be - he hurt more than the actual damage.

“It’s fine, Kyun, don’t worry,” Chanhee smiled and tried to take his hand back, so the older wouldn’t look at it anymore and worry - though the damage was done already so it was quite dumb to do that just for that reason. It didn’t work, though, as Youngkyun had a strong hold on him. “We’ll have the perfect title at least and it won’t even be clickbait - something along the lines of _’FIRST BLOOD!!! YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED!!’_ or something like that.”

“The title of the video is the last thing I care about right now, trust me,” he mumbled under his nose. It was funny how the distraction of just talking to the older already made him hurt less. He had read once that when something’s hurting and you can’t do anything about it, you have to find a distraction and he hadn’t really believed that until now but now it was barely even hurting so apparently you _can_ trust things you read on the internet sometimes. “Tae, does Seokwoo know where he has to come to or should we go wait for him downstairs?”

“I think I told him pretty well but I’ll go downstairs and get him,” Taeyang murmured, turning off the camera and putting it down. “I’ll be right back.”

“You should be more careful,” Youngkyun sighed. There was no sign of the scared, lighthearted Youngkyun anymore, it was now responsible and stern Youngkyun and Chanhee was slightly scared that Youngkyun would stay like that for the rest of the night because that wasn’t entertaining at all.

“It’s not my fault, I couldn’t have known,” Chanhee defended himself, he didn’t like being blamed for something that he wasn’t at fault for. _Technically_, yes, he could’ve not gone exploring but that’s the price you pay for entertainment. And worse could’ve happened, it wasn’t like Chanhee’s about to die now.

“I know, you just need to look around next time, okay? I can’t have you getting hurt left and right,” Youngkyun softened his voice up. Chanhee sometimes didn’t get the older - at one point he’s lighthearted, fun and chill but something minor can happen and he turns into the most responsible person in the entire world, ready to save Chanhee from anything.

“Okay,” the younger mumbled in response. They only had to wait a minute or so until they heard steps in their direction. Though, they came from the opposite side of where they were supposed to come from.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: blood (is that a valid tw, it’s written blood so you can’t even see it- oh well, just to be sure skhdhd)


	3. Chapter 3

Chanhee and Youngkyun turned around and tried to look at the end of the hallway - surely, they saw two silhouettes, very blurry and unrecognizable because of the dark but they were coming their way. Youngkyun looked very scared and seemed like he was ready to break out into a run, on the other hand, Chanhee just wanted his boyfriend to get here faster so they could just move on.

That happened, except not as he was expecting. In a few seconds his shoulder was tapped on and once he turned around, he saw both Taeyang and Seokwoo there. Seokwoo had a small first aid kit in his hand and a worried expression.

“Give me your hand,” he quickly ordered. “I’ll fix you right up.”

“Thanks,” Chanhee smiled softly and looked back - there was nothing at the end of the hallway.

“Chanhee?” Youngkyun spoke up quietly. “You saw that, right? The people there?” the older asked. By now if he was any paler, he would just be translucent. It seemed like the boy had achieved a new kind of white, no foundation - except maybe a correction pen - would help him now.

“If you look into darkness for long enough, you start seeing all kinds of shit,” he tried to calm the older down. It was true - they had tried that at home and Chanhee was proven right - as always. “It’s probably the lack of light and you spending time in the room alone that made you see something.”

“You didn’t see anything?”

“It’s just the darkness playing tricks on you, Kyun,” he chuckled. The boy looked up at his boyfriend instead who was trying to clean out the cuts on his fingers with utter concentration on his face.

“You need to be careful, baby,” Seokwoo reminded just like Youngkyun had a few moments ago. If he had to hear that another time, he could and would go absolutely feral.

“That’s why I have you here, right?” Chanhee laughed and almost yanked his hand away from the sudden stinging pain that appeared. He mumbled a few variations of _’fuck_was the youngest in the friend group but he still didn’t enjoy that.

“Just… don’t get hurt again,” Seokwoo smiled back warmly and pressed a small kiss on Chanhee’s forehead. “Do you guys have a lot left to film or can I wait here?”

“I still have to spend my time in the murder room and we have to go check out the fourth floor again so Youngkyun can tell us about the murderer and the demon and then we can go back, so it should all take around twenty minutes, maybe a bit more,” Chanhee explained. “But I think you can still wait here - provide some material for the episode and stuff.”

“Please don’t call it the murder room, I don’t want to let you in there,” Seokwoo murmured, hugging Chanhee from the back and resting his head on Chanhee’s. The younger laughed and shook his head.

“I’m going in, pals, wish me luck,” Chanhee freed himself from the hug and got into the room, closing the door behind him. “Start the timer, Kyun!”

“Done!” the older yelled back. Chanhee could hear muffled talking from behind the door but he didn’t listen in. Instead he walked up to the window and looked out of it - nothing out of the place, it was a good location for a calm hotel, kind of sad something like that happened in it.

The boy decided to try the spirit box again. Maybe if the batteries would be hit against something, they would work for a little while again. He used to that with the TV remotes when he was too lazy to go to the store and it worked well. Sure enough - the device turned on again in all its loudness.

“Hello, spirits and Mr Demon,” Chanhee spoke up. “How are you doing this fine night? Wanna perhaps, y’know, communicate with me? Prove your existence?”

_ ”Pancakes.” _

Chanhee broke out in laughter at that, he _knew_ already that anything being said there wasn’t real and it was just a game of luck if they heard something or not but the concept of someone replying to a question like that was amusing Chanhee more than it should have.

“Lovely, I like my desserts, too,” the younger chuckled. “God - sorry Mr God -, it must be so weird hearing me speak for them, pretty much like talking to myself. It _is_ talking to myself, not even almost that. The things I do for your entertainment,” Chanhee said, looking straight at the camera.

Then the spirit box died again and Chanhee didn’t try getting it work again, it was too loud for him to listen to any more of it. He stood there, leaning against the wall and waiting for the time to be up. Chanhee tried being vigilant but soon failed because he didn’t believe that anything could happen to him - it really couldn’t because he was alone in the room and the only danger he could experience now was if the building decided to suddenly collapse.

“Time’s up!” in a few minutes Chanhee heard Youngkyun say. The boy went to open the door except he couldn’t, it wouldn’t open.

“I can’t open the door,” the younger said, trying the handle once again. He was more than sure he hadn’t locked the door himself and he believed no one who was waiting for him out there would do that either.

“You what?” Youngkyun asked and tried the door, too. No luck. “Try it again from inside?”

Chanhee did as he was told. In a few tries the door finally opened.

“If you tell me this is evidence that ghosts exist, I’m going to vore your knees,” Chanhee threatened. He tended to have unsettling threats but they worked so he wasn’t going to change anything about himself. “Let’s go upstairs, I wanna go home and sleep.”

”You heard the man,” Youngkyun shrugged and led the way upstairs, Taeyang walking in front of them and filming. “Now to tell you about the murderer and the demon that possessed him,” Youngkyun started. “The murderer’s name was Oh Heeyoung. There wasn’t anything much about him that I could find - he was a widowed man from a few towns over who came to spend a night here while he was on his way to Daegu but that plan didn’t really go through when he was possessed by a demon and killed the family. The demon is said to be really powerful, too, based on what the priest had said and the people that live around here, they say that they still see someone walking around here and sometimes feel an urge to walk in here but they know better than to do that by now.”

“Yeah, I mean, it’s a big health concern even being here. The dust in the air can’t be good for your lungs and this,” he waved his injured hand at the camera, “isn’t what I’d call healthy either. I get that they wouldn’t want to come in here, it’s not just because of the imaginary demons.”

“What’s the room you tried to go into?” Youngkyun asked. “Because the room of Heeyoung was number forty seven, was it that one?”

“The last thing I paid attention to was the room number,” Chanhee murmured. “The door didn’t have any graffiti on it, that’s the only thing I can remember,” he said. Seokwoo took Chanhee’s hand into his and Chanhee smirked. He would never openly say that he likes the affection but they both knew anyway - they were just in love, to not beat around the bush.

“Is this the one?” Youngkyun stopped in front of a door. It seemed to resemble the one he had gotten hurt at.

“Check behind the handle, I think so,” Chanhee said. The older did as he was told - indeed, in a second the razors were no more and they were ripped off and dropped on the floor. “Are we going in?”

“Just to look around a bit, I think, we already went through all this trouble, let’s end this accordingly,” Youngkyun replied. He sounded unsure but still opened the door. “After you, gents,” he made Chanhee and Seokwoo go in first.

Chanhee went in and looked around; the room was no different than the ones he had already been in but it was a bit cleaner than the others. The bed wasn’t as messed up as in the other rooms, it just looked like someone had been sleeping in it a little while ago and gotten up to get some water.

“I could live here, if I wasn’t going to die from a dust allergy and bed bugs,” Chanhee said. “Send a cleaning service over and you’ll have my new apartment, honestly. The whole hotel can be cleaned up and in business again.”

“I think the spirits would hinder that,” Youngkyun reminded.

“Yeah, the unicorns, too, and who could forget about the centaurs back in the stable there?” Chanhee mocked. “This could be a hotel for people that don’t have irrational fears like you do, pal,” he said in the same mocking tone as before.

Chanhee could hear a quiet snicker from Seokwoo, too. The man truly found even the slightest bit of humor from Chanhee amusing. It was uplifting, honestly, a true confidence boost. Maybe Chanhee should drop out of university and pursue a comedian’s career. It wouldn’t pay well but at least he already had a fanbase of one.

“Fearing spirits is not irrational, they exist and some are malicious, therefore worth being scared of,” Youngkyun objected. He sounded so confident in what he was saying that Chanhee could have almost believed him, except that ghosts didn’t actually exist, therefore they couldn’t hurt anyone or have a malicious personality.

“Let’s not get into this debate again, I’m not gonna believe in spirits until we get substantial evidence,” he reminded. “And for now we’ve had exactly none of that.”

“One day you’ll change your mind.”

“Please don’t threaten Chanhee like that, I want my boyfriend safe and sound,” Seokwoo spoke up and pulled the younger in a hug protectively. Chanhee used the opportunity to jump on him - now he could get carried to the car instead of having to walk and - God forbid - help carry the equipment, now it could be Youngkyun doing that.

“I’d never threaten our sunshine,” Youngkyun shined a fake smile. “I’m just saying that one day there will be something that he can’t deny like that.”

“Sure,” Chanhee wheezed. “Good luck getting that kind of evidence, buddy. Let’s get back to the car, I don’t think there’s anything else here to see for now.”

“Yeah, I think we’ve got everything. Let’s go,” Youngkyun confirmed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i forgot i had to post today, luckily my body jolted me awake at 3 am so now it’s almost 4 am and i’m posting


	4. Chapter 4

“Are you staying over?” Chanhee murmured sleepily. He had his head against Seokwoo’s chest as they were standing at the front door, waiting for Taeyang to get back - probably wasn’t going to happen for a while now as Youngkyun always tried to get Taeyang to spend as much time with him as possible. “We could watch a movie or something,” he added, yawning.

“We could _sleep_, you’d fall asleep in the first five minutes of a movie, love,” Seokwoo laughed. “I can stay if Youngkyun doesn’t mind,” he said. Youngkyun didn’t mind, they had established that ages ago and the older had said himself to not even ask anymore. Their apartment was big enough for them to not bother each other and they were all close friends anyway so it wasn’t a big deal.

“Perfect,” Chanhee smiled. “I’ll go tell Kyun, you can go have a shower and go to the bedroom then,” he said. Seokwoo hummed in agreement and Chanhee went to the living room where Taeyang was going over what they had recorded from all the cameras with Youngkyun. 

The two had gotten closer since the last time Chanhee saw them about five minutes ago, which wasn’t surprising in the slightest, to be fair, but it was just as disgusting as usual. Chanhee just wished both of them would get some sense in them and confess to each other - after all, they were both _clearly_ in love with each other.

“Hey, Kyun,” Chanhee let the older know about him. Youngkyun jumped upon hearing his name and looked at the boy fearfully.

“Don’t scare me like that again,” he put his hand on his chest and sighed in relief. “What’s up?”

“Seokwoo’s staying over,” he informed. Chanhee raised an eyebrow and shot a look at Taeyang, who was still going over the footage, as if to tell Youngkyun to ask if Taeyang wanted to stay over as well. Youngkyun furrowed his brows and shook his head. Chanhee rolled his eyes and thus their silent conversation was over. The loud one wasn’t, though. “Taeyang, do you want to stay over, too?” the younger asked in a sweet voice. “Seokwoo and you can go home together tomorrow then, no one will have to use the metro,” he explained himself. “I’m pretty sure you’ve left some clothes behind at some point so that wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Oh?” Taeyang sounded like he hadn’t expected such a question. “I mean, if neither of you mind?” he said in a questioning tone, looking at Youngkyun who had shot an angry look at Chanhee when Taeyang wasn’t watching. “It would save some time and I could help you edit tomorrow if you want.”

“I don’t mind, of course,” Youngkyun said a bit too fast. “Do you wanna sleep with me?” Youngkyun asked as if that was a completely normal question. He only realised that it wasn’t once both Chanhee and Taeyang shot rather questioning looks his way. “I mean, like, in my room. I can take the couch in the room and you can sleep on the bed,” he explained himself and blushed. “It’s the middle of the night, you can’t expect me to do Korean,” he crossed his arms over his chest as Chanhee laughed.

“I’d love to sleep with you,” Taeyang teased and winked exaggeratedly.

“You two are disgusting, I’m going to bed,” Chanhee fake gagged and left the two to their own business, he couldn’t be bothered listening to them badly flirt with each other. It was only a matter of time when Chanhee would lock them into a room together and make them confess to each other, to be honest.

***

Chanhee wasn’t used to waking up when it was still dark outside. Usually he woke up when the room was light and he could see everywhere around him. That wasn’t the case this time. The boy had an arm around him, holding him tightly in a hug. Right, Seokwoo had stayed over.

The boy carefully moved Seokwoo’s hand off his waist and got out of the bed. He exited the room and went to the kitchen. Maybe a cup of tea would help him sleep. He heard that chamomile usually helps. They had some, Youngkyun had bought it a few days ago. Well, there was some good in him loving to buy all kinds of herbs and spices for _protection rituals_.

What the boy hadn’t expected was that Youngkyun would be in the kitchen, too. The boy was standing at the window and looking out of it at the nightly sky. Youngkyun quickly turned around as he heard Chanhee entering and put on a worrisome expression on his face. He tended to go into extreme protective mode around the boy - it was weird because whatever Chanhee did was always what Youngkyun also did, so _purely technically_ the older had no right to go into a protective mode, yet he always did.

“Why aren’t you in bed?” Youngkyun asked - case and point.

“Why aren’t you?” Chanhee shot back. “I just woke up, thought I’d have some tea to help me sleep,” he explained and put the kettle on. “Do you want any?”

“Sit down, I’ll make some for us,” Youngkyun took out two cups and put the tea in them. “Bad dream or just couldn’t sleep?” he questioned. The older had his brows furrowed and his arms crossed over his chest. He looked worried.

“Nothing, I just woke up and didn’t feel like sleeping anymore,” Chanhee admitted. “What about you?”

“Taeyang accidentally slapped me in the face, I woke up,” Youngkyun chuckled. “I think _someone_,” he looked accusingly at Chanhee, “took the extra blanket we have so we had to sleep together in the bed. Apparently Taeyang moves a lot in his sleep.”

“I don’t know anything, I’m an angel,” Chanhee smiled disgustingly sweetly and cupped his cheeks. He wouldn’t be surprised if a halo suddenly appeared over his head. “You can’t blame me, Seokwoo hogs blankets, I had to make sure I don’t freeze to death,” he tried to make up an excuse. It wouldn’t hold but neither of them believed it either way.

“Yeah, _you’re_ the angel,” Youngkyun rolled his eyes. “Is your hand okay? Does it hurt?” the older asked. “I believe we have some painkillers.”

“It’s fine, no worries. It’ll be like new in a few days,” Chanhee assured. “Glad I’m not an anti-vaxxer and have all my shots or I’d be dead in a few days,” the boy did a peace sign as he said it. “Why am I like this?” he questioned himself. “Is it 3 am? That’s usually the time I start questioning my existence,” he murmured.

“Do you think we should go to the hospital tomorrow just in case? Who knows what kind of bacteria there was, I think that’s one of the dirtiest places we’ve ever been to,” Youngkyun shook as if to make the memories and leftover bacteria on him go away. He turned around and poured the water on the tea and passed one of the cups to the younger.

“No, I’ll be just fine, Kyun, don’t worry,” Chanhee chuckled. The boy disliked hospitals just in general so he tried to avoid them as best as possible. He got bad _vibes_ from them. The boy wasn’t scared, obviously, no reason to be, he just had a severe dislike of hospitals for no reason.

“Okay,” the older murmured, the displeasure audible in his voice.

Both of them looked at each other as they heard footsteps coming their way, guessing whether it was Taeyang or Seokwoo looking for their _other half_. The mystery was solved as soon as the door opened and in entered Taeyang, sleepily rubbing his eyes. The sight was cute, Chanhee had to agree, but not cute enough to warrant the look of pure love in Youngkyun’s eyes. Even Seokwoo didn’t look at Chanhee that way and that was saying something.

“And why are _you_ awake?” Youngkyun said accusingly and maybe a bit too loudly. Chanhee didn’t worry about that because Seokwoo would definitely sleep through that. “Go back to bed. Or do you want some tea?” the boy offered.

Taeyang plopped himself down on the chair opposite of Chanhee, still looking a bit out of it from sleep. He looked at both of the younger boys, blinked and signed for Youngkyun to come his way.

Youngkyun raised his eyebrows but did as he was told - or signed, rather. He put the cup of tea down on the counter and went to Taeyang only to be pulled down on the man’s lap. Chanhee let out a small chuckle while Youngkyun seemed horrified - not in a bad way - and surprised at the same time. “I missed my cuddle buddy,” he murmured sleepily and hugged the younger tightly, putting his head on the boy’s shoulder and closing his eyes. It seemed like Taeyang was about to fall back asleep just sitting there.

Chanhee found it quite amusing, it was so obvious both of them liked each other, yet neither of them did anything about it and ended up in situations like these. Chanhee had been upfront about his feelings toward Seokwoo as soon as he realised what he felt and they had been together ever since - for a year or two already now.

“Do you want to go back to bed, Yangie?” Youngkyun asked softly. “We can go.”

No response. Taeyang was sound asleep again right there. That elicited a small chuckle from Chanhee again - even he didn’t fall asleep that easily.

“What do I do?” Youngkyun whispered.

“You’re on your own on this one, buddy,” Chanhee shrugged. The boy took a sip of tea, it was good, Youngkyun always made good tea. Pretty much the only talent he had. “Drink some tea,” Chanhee passed the boy his cup, “relax, you can wake him up after we finish our tea drinking and go back to bed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just noticed that i fucked up when posting the last chapter and accidentally deleted a whole paragraph and a half somewhere in the middle but i fixed it now and y'all didn't miss anything so it's okay kdfjs hope u enjoyed this chapter where i, hopefully, didn't make any mistakes when posting


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was written with the one and only [xiaodejun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xiaodejun) who also has a buzzfeed unsolved fic with the nct dream cast and it's perfect and everything u could ever wish for and go read it thank u very much

“I think you will be excited to know that our new video will not include going to any haunted places or getting hurt in any way,” Youngkyun informed, entering the room. Chanhee looked up at him, squinting slightly. It was about 10 am and Seokwoo and Chanhee had only woken up about twenty minutes ago which meant that neither of them had any kind of brain power to do any thinking.

“So like… any location we’ve ever been at because the concept of haunting doesn’t… actually… exist…” Chanhee murmured, yawning afterwards. “Where are we going?”

“Chanhee, you have no idea what kind of self restraint I need to have around you,” Youngkyun sighed. Chanhee had heard that sentence too many times already. It was fair though, Chanhee wasn’t easy to handle but it was an endearing quality. “I called up a person and we’re going to get tarot card readings. It’s fun, interesting and useful. I got one once, it really called me out on my bullshit.”

“Talk to me, Kyun, I can call you out just as much as _playing cards_,” Chanhee mocked. He didn’t believe in the concept of tarot cards. He had to agree that, yes, it was interesting and the designs on the cards were always amazing and fascinating but that the only thing good about it because tarot cards couldn’t really say anything about a person. It was as much as a game of chance as runes and all of the fake spiritual things.

“We’re going at two, so get ready to be in a condition to actually talk to people. And I beg of you - don’t be rude to the person, he’s just trying to do his job,” Youngkyun said and put the kettle on. “Do y’all want some coffee?”

“We’re going _today_?” Chanhee asked in disbelief. “We already did an episode just yesterday! And why didn’t you tell me earlier?” he protested. “And I’m not rude to others, only to you, love,” he cooed.

“Because you would’ve told me to cancel it because you don’t believe in tarot cards,” Youngkyun pointed out. It was true, so Chanhee couldn’t really object to it but he didn’t like that the older didn’t consult with him. What’s done was done, so there was no point in arguing, so he decided not to protest.

“You’re making breakfast,” Chanhee said. That was a good enough revenge. Youngkyun hated cooking - mostly because he wasn’t good at it but no one cared, as long as Chanhee could inconvenience his friend, it was good. “And coffee.”

“Fine, but you’re paying for dinner,” Youngkyun made his rules. Chanhee didn’t like that but it was only fair - Youngkyun bought groceries way more often than Chanhee did. “And we’re not eating at home, I wanna go out.”

“Aight,” Chanhee agreed.

***

“Okay, so, we’re getting readings for you, me and Seokwoo. Taeyang, are you sure you don’t want one?” Youngkyun looked at the man expectantly.

“Nah, I’m good, I’m just here to film,” he smiled and turned on his camera.

“Alright,” Youngkyun said and knocked on the door.

“Well, well, well,” in front of the door, on a big, velvet chair sat a boy with silver hair. He was holding a glass of something that looked like wine. (it wasn’t.) 

“‘sup,” Chanhee threw up a peace sign. “Lovely aesthetic,” he said with a smile on his face. The boy could hear a quiet sigh come from behind him, obviously, Youngkyun’s. Their whole friendship could be summed up with a mix of eye rolls and sighs.

“Why, thank you,” the silver-haired boy said, took a last sip from the glass and threw it behind himself. The glass shattered into pieces. A loud, annoyed ‘Donghyuck’ could be heard from the room somewhere in the apartment, but he seemed to ignore it. 

“Welcome to my modest little home,” he said, throwing himself over the chair dramatically.

“I’m Chanhee and this is the crew, their names are unimportant,” he introduced himself. The boy was about to speak further but was immediately interrupted by Youngkyun who put his hand in front of Chanhee’s mouth, not letting him say anything dumber than he already had.

“I’m Youngkyun, that’s Seokwoo,” he pointed at the man accompanying them, “and that’s Taeyang,” Youngkyun said, now in a slightly softer tone, pointing at the camera man. “We’re here for the tarot reading?”

“I know,” the boy said, smiling mysteriously. He took out a long, gold-colored dagger. His smile grew. “Who’s ready for the sacrifice?” 

A loud noise could be heard behind him. The door to one of the rooms opened and a tall boy in a basketball outfit got out. 

“Oh, no,” he groaned. “Not again.” 

“Oh my God - sorry, Mr God -, Youngkyun, is this an early birthday present? Am I finally getting killed? Thank you, I always knew I could trust you to be the best best friend I could ever wish for,” Chanhee said in a completely serious tone. Youngkyun, on the other hand, was not amused. At least, not by what Chanhee had said.

“Should I be concerned?” Seokwoo asked quietly, looking a bit dumbfounded at the whole situation.

“Not in the slightest,” basketball guy said, reaching for the dagger. “And I will take that.” 

“You’re no fun at all, Mr Lee.” 

“You neither, Mr Lee.” 

Chairboy got up, kissed his cheek and looked at his guests. He then smiled and gestured towards a different door. 

“If you hurry, we might even have the time to eat some dessert,” he announced, leading them to that room.

Seokwoo shot a look of doubt at Chanhee who in return just shrugged and followed. He had long gotten rid of any fear of getting murdered by a crazed tarot card reader. The boy was more concerned about accidentally having left the iron on at home.

The younger plopped himself down on the first chair he saw and Seokwoo did the same next to him, reaching out his hand to hold Chanhee’s. Youngkyun followed their example and also sat down. Chanhee looked around the room, noticing different small details that added to the tarot boy’s general aesthetic - the old books and a Ouija board really gave a certain vibe that Chanhee couldn’t explain.

“So, how does this work?” Chanhee asked, engaged in whatever they were about to do.

“Excuse him, he’s had too much coffee,” Youngkyun added immediately.

“Oh, for now, he is very much excused,” tarot boy said, sitting down. “Chanhee, am I right? Yeah, I’d be careful with caffeine if I were you. Enough things already will be keeping you up at night.” 

He smiled and got up again to leave the table for a few seconds. He came back with a small leather bag and a pitcher of lemonade. 

“Who wants lemonade?” he asked casually. “It’s my special recipe. It’s called Haechan. Like me. Is that narcissistic? Probably. Do I care? No.” 

“That was ominous,” Chanhee murmured. “Seokwoo, I’m not letting you stay over, I need my beauty sleep, clearly,” he said.

“Hey, I’m the one that makes sure you sleep,” Seokwoo protested. “I don’t deserve this.”

“Please get Chanhee some lemonade so he has something else to do with his mouth that doesn’t include speaking,” Youngkyun sighed and hid his face in his hands. That was a normal occurrence whenever they spoke. Both of them facepalmed way more than healthy or necessary.

“I support you on your naming choices,” Chanhee added after Youngkyun had finished his sentence. “I think Youngkyun needs some lemonade instead, he seems too worried to film a video normally,” the boy stuck out his tongue at his friend a seat over. Youngkyun reacted by putting his head down on the table on not picking it up again.

The tarot boy - Haechan - laughed and poured everyone lemonade. He watched them in silence for a few seconds, focused especially on Taeyang. 

“And why are you so silent?” he suddenly asked, staring right at him. “Did a tarot card reader kill your parents or something?” 

“I’m just here to film,” after a few moments of silence that seemed to be way too long, Taeyang answered. “I don’t participate,” he murmured.

Youngkyun picked up his head from the table and looked at the interaction, shooting a quick dirty look at the tarot boy that might as well not have been noticed because of how fast he turned his gaze away.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Haechan said with the widest of smiles. “Didn’t want to offend you or your poor loverboy here. Well, to those participating: are you ready to get dragged? And I mean _dragged_. Once a client ran out of a reading in tears. Had to chase after her wearing a blood red robe because she forgot to pay. Not my proudest moment.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank u for reading mwah


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter once again written with the one and only [xiaodejun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xiaodejun/pseuds/xiaodejun) who also has an unsolved fic but with the nct dream cast which u can find over [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16817674/chapters/39475720) !!

“He’s not my lover,” Youngkyun denied immediately, his profusely blushing cheeks making his point invalid immediately. “We’re ready. Let’s start with Chanhee, so he’s out of the way faster.”

“I know you meant it in a bad way but thank you and I appreciate you,” Chanhee smiled. Both Seokwoo and Youngkyun looked at each other, furrowing their eyebrows. It wasn’t every day when Chanhee actually acted like an actual human being instead of a trash goblin without manners.

“Don’t say that ever again,” Youngkyun shook his head.

Haechan straightened up and took out a deck of golden cards. They were pretty and yet sinister, the gold clashing with black elements on the back of them. He shuffled them quickly, all happiness disappearing from his face, replaced with pure focus. 

“What’s your full name again?” he asked, looking at Chanhee. 

“Kang _’Little Bitch’_ Chanhee,” the younger laughed at his very unfunny joke. “Just Kang Chanhee,” he clarified just in case Haechan would believe that his parents were sadistic enough to call their child that.

“Little Bitch suits you,” Haechan said slowly and closed his eyes. He shuffled the cards for a bit longer and then he spread them out. He looked at his first victim for the last time and closed his eyes, focused. Then he picked out three cards, slowly and carefully. 

“We’re going to do a past-present-future reading,” he said, opening his eyes. “So, Kang Chanhee, are you ready?” 

“Never been more ready, I’m excited,” he tried to keep all of his skepticism inside, making himself act odd, to say the least. “Is it future as in how I’ll die in about five years or is it future as in whether I’m getting out of buying dinner tonight?”

“I can tell you that without tarot cards - you’re not,” Youngkyun sternly pointed a finger at Chanhee. “You’re buying dinner whether you want it or not, loser.”

“Don’t bully Chanhee, he’s lovely,” Seokwoo defended the younger and squeezed his hand in support. “And we love our small boy.”

“Speak for yourself,” Youngkyun murmured. “I can’t stand him, he’s a rotten peanut shell.”

Haechan slowly uncovered the cards and looked at them, surprise apparent in his eyes. There were four cards in front of him, and not three, like he’d drawn. 

“That doesn’t happen very often,” he finally said and looked at Chanhee. “Let’s start with the past. It seems that you were experiencing a bit of… disconnection from your intuition, am I right?” 

“It’s awfully bold of you to assume he’s ever had or ever will have any connection with his intuition,” Youngkyun chimed in immediately without even letting Chanhee answer Haechan’s question. Not a surprising move because Chanhee and Youngkyun did not want each other to have any kind of screen time.

“And yet I’m smarter than you,” Chanhee mocked. “I will dismember you if you talk too much, Kyun,” the boy threatened.

“Still doesn’t answer my question. But seems like your past casts a shadow on your present,” Haechan said, playing with the card. “The emotional immaturity, yeah.” 

He looked at Chanhee suddenly with a very serious look on his face. For a second, Haechan’s eyes were cold and analytical. 

“You were hiding behind that immaturity for a long time, weren’t you? Isn’t it time to face your own insecurities?” 

“I’m great and lovely and Seokwoo can confirm. I dunno, pal,” Chanhee raised an eyebrow. He did not call people he liked _’pal’_. For now all that had been said could technically just be thought up on the spot even without tarot cards, by seeing how he acted with his friends and Chanhee was not about to believe that a _card_ could tell Haechan that.

“Oh yeah, definitely,” Seokwoo confirmed immediately, looking at Chanhee with a warm smile.

“Oh, I don’t doubt he’d confirm anything you asked. But I feel like it’s not fair to you, is it? Having everyone else constantly validate you when you _know_ how immature you really are? It’s easier to ignore that, though. Same with your intuition. You ignore things you’re scared of, Kang Chanhee,” Haechan said with a wide smile, as if he wasn’t just absolutely exposing someone’s ass. “Now, for the present… Yeah, exactly. You feel powerless, so you put your energy into fighting what you can. I’ll give you a tip: it’s not the right thing you’re fighting for. Start noticing the facts, maybe.” 

“Everyone needs a bit of validation in their life,” Chanhee shrugged, trying not to take what the tarot boy was saying to heart. It had _at least_ a hint of truth but he wasn’t about to admit that. He didn’t want to help Youngkyun prove his point of view - especially since it wasn’t the right one.

The younger looked at both Seokwoo and Youngkyun who were listening to Haechan carefully. Chanhee slightly rolled his eyes at that - it wasn’t even that impressive.

“You sure the present card wasn’t meant for Youngkyun? ‘Cause he’s the one that believes in _ghosts_,” Chanhee chuckled, trying to lighten up the mood again - he didn’t want to fight anyone at the moment and he hoped it could stay that way.

“Oh, ghosts,” Haechan said, looking at the future cards. His face was a little pale. He looked at Chanhee and this time his eyes were filled with legitimate worry. “Well, seems like the future isn’t bright for you, _pal_. There’s two of them, which might mean the close and the further future. So, first… We have an _unhappy home_. You’ve mentioned ghosts, yes? Do you guys do some ghost hunting or something?” 

“I mean, Youngkyun’s hunting ghosts and I’m just there, appreciating the spider webs in the abandoned places,” Chanhee said. He could _sense_ Youngkyun getting tenser by the second. It wasn’t too surprising - after all, he was the one that believed in all of this, but Chanhee didn’t like that. As much of a little bitch he was to his friends, he didn’t want them to be actually worried. Especially not because of _playing cards_.

“We visit haunted places and look for ghosts, yes. Chanhee just doesn’t believe in them yet,” Youngkyun explained, now listening extra carefully.

“Well, one could interpret this as haunting,” Haechan said. “Or just some… Bad experiences at home. But the second card… That means betrayal and loss. It seems to me that you might lose something… Or someone… Dear to you. Or you will experience betrayal. A painful one. It might be someone very close to you.” 

He looked at all of them with a grim face. 

“It might be that someone is lying to you or hiding something from you,” he finally said. “Of course, it all depends on your actions. It doesn’t always come true. We, humans, always can change our destinies. Well, who’s next?” 

“Well, now that was just grim,” Chanhee couldn’t let himself react to it more. Obviously, there was much more to say and to try to analyze but he didn’t want to let anyone know that he was actually affected by Haechan’s words. That would mean immediate defeat and Chanhee wasn’t about that.

“Let’s do me,” Youngkyun replied. “That came out wrong. Do not read into that.”

“I think that’s someone else’s job,” Chanhee coughed, pointing his head at Taeyang. Very obviously at that.

“And your full name is… Kim Youngkyun, right?” Haechan smiled and shuffled all the cards. He repeated the whole routine, but this time he seemed far more tired by it. He looked at Youngkyun and furrowed his eyebrows. 

“What the fuck, dude,” he finally said. “It feels as if someone just built a brick wall. Or played white noise around you. That was hard. You’re lucky I’m no casual fortune teller.” 

“Guess I’m just special like that,” Youngkyun shrugged and laughed but the tension was visible. He seemed nervous and ready to bolt at any given moment. Chanhee was, too, to be fair, but he wasn’t as tense about it. “Lay it on me, I’m ready to be called out!”

“Okay, let’s see,” Haechan uncovered the cards. “Seems like you tried something new. Combined something, found balance… Did you get married, or something?” 

“He wishes,” Chanhee started laughing before Youngkyun could get to answer.

“No, I don’t, your turn is over, shut up,” Youngkyun pouted slightly. “I didn’t get married but I do get where that’s coming from,” he admitted.

“I don’t. Mind sharing?” Chanhee looked over at his friend. He genuinely didn’t get what Haechan was talking about, even though by now he knew everything about Youngkyun and more.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, huh?” he laughed it off.

“Well, I’m sure you approach whatever that is with _angelic_ patience,” Haechan giggled. “Get it? The card’s an angel. And also, you deal with Chanhee, so I trust your patience.” 

He stretched his fingers like a pianist and looked at the cards. He bit his lip. 

“I know you said no marriage, but you sure are experiencing some love struggles,” he said. “Your heart is guarded and you’re not allowing yourself to feel. It’s probably because you feel responsible for the project… or that other union that you’ve made in the past. But blocking your feelings completely won’t get you anywhere, Youngkyun. It will only lead to more problems with work.” 

“Love struggles,” Youngkyun laughed, blushing a bright red and hiding his face from the camera and also Taeyang in result, “I have none, obviously,” he laughed some more as if to exaggerate his point but it only ended up looking faker than ever.

“Just shoot me, please,” Chanhee banged his head on the table repeatedly. “I have to live with him while he’s having his _love struggles_. Do you have any cards that could tell him to stop being a pussy and end the love struggles once and for all?” he asked, hope in his voice evident.

“Chanhee, friend, dude,” Youngkyun laughed _again_ and looked over at Chanhee threateningly, “what do you mean by that? I have _none of those_.”

“Right, you only love me and me only, there is no struggle,” Chanhee rolled his eyes. “You are a terrible actor.”

Haechan watched them with raised eyebrows. Finally, he looked at the third card and sighed. 

“Y’all are going to have a hell of a future,” he said. “Seems like you will be working _a lot_ soon. And I mean A LOT. All of the work might depend on you, and you only. As I’ve mentioned, it’s all changeable… But for now, seems like you’re going to become a martyr soon.” 

He shuffled the cards and looked at Seokwoo with a smile. 

“Guess it’s your turn, big boy?” 

“Much to think about,” Youngkyun hummed and turned to Seokwoo to see what his cards were going to see.

“I don’t know if I’m ready but I’m not going to become readier, so let’s... “ Seokwoo stopped to think for a second, “let’s get it!” he said excitedly.

“Kim Seokwoo, I’m literally going to leave, you and just in general, too, and you cannot stop me,” Chanhee sighed quietly and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Never ever say that again, I beg of you,” the boy said with the most serious facial expression.

“Kim Seokwoo,” Haechan repeated and shuffled the cards again. He then went into his focus mode again. That seemed much easier this time. He pulled out the cards. 

“Oh, that’s a nice one, actually. Seems like you found a person you care about the most, dare I say… A soulmate?” Haechan smiled. “Yeah, someone here fell in _love_ love. And the love is nurturing you, and you are giving back twice the amount. You take care of people you love. That’s an important trait, Seokwoo. Keep it. Take care of it. And I hope these idiots appreciate it.” 

He looked at the last card and the smile left his face suddenly. 

“This means a wounded person, or something that will really hurt,” he finally said. “I don’t know if it will hurt _you_, but it could cause you to raise your walls up. Might mean love struggles of some kind? Be careful, anyway. And celebrate the love.” 

“Man, the Cupid’s really not playing around, huh?” Chanhee laughed. Now he knew for sure that this wasn’t real - Seokwoo and Chanhee had a happy relationship, love struggles were not invited or accepted.

“Now I’m just worried,” Seokwoo furrowed his eyebrows and put an arm around Chanhee protectively. Chanhee sighed quietly and eased into his hug - hearing that the man was worried was not something he enjoyed. “But I’m sure everything will be fine in the end,” he smiled and ruffled Chanhee’s hair.

“Well, and there goes Kang Chanhee again,” Haechan said, squinting. “With his skepticism and cynical approach. Aren’t you just the biggest scaredy-cat in the room?” 

“I believe you’re wrong on that one, pal,” Chanhee said a bit _too_ sweetly for it to actually sound nice. “I don’t have anything to be scared of because I don’t believe in random cards. I could take a card from the middle of the deck and think up a story, too,” he defended himself.

“Oh, sure you could,” Haechan said with a cold smile. “And that’s exactly what you do. You come up with stories for yourself, so you can avoid thinking about the truth. Sad, if you think about it… Which you _don’t._”

“I’m the one that believes and lives by _facts_, not made-up stories, like, obviously, _you do_,” he answered, not even bothering to try to change his intonation to a nicer one or to put a smile on his face.

“Well, wouldn’t you like to see something more physical?” Donghyuck took one of the cards and threw it in Chanhee’s direction. The card flew just past the boy’s ear and hit the chair, getting stuck in it like a knife. 

“Glad to see that the card has at least some kind of _real use_,” he took the card out of the chair. He looked it up and down and right as he was preparing to throw it back - not past Haechan but right at him instead -, he was stopped. Taeyang put his hand forward to not let Chanhee do his maneuver.

“How about we don’t do that and, uh, get a reading done for me instead? Today’s been eventful enough _without_ fights,” he chuckled nervously and sat down. “Kyunnie, can you take the camera?”

“Of course,” Youngkyun got up and took the camera from the older. The relief in his eyes was visible.

“Oh, well then,” Haechan took back his card and shuffled them all. “What’s your full name?” 

“Yoo Taeyang,” he let out a quiet breath he had been holding.

“Well, Yoo Taeyang. Let’s see why you’re so quiet today,” the fortune teller hummed. A few seconds later, he had three cards. He uncovered them and sighed. 

“Oh, you guys are _impossible_ with each other.” He looked at Taeyang and then, briefly, at Youngkyun. “Seems like in the past you led quite an uninteresting life, hm? It was all dull until you found those people. And you’re happy with them. But you’re also experiencing some serious love struggles. Unrequited feelings, or maybe you just think they are. The person you have them for tries their best not to show any sign of endearment… Even though it makes you both miserable.” 

“Yeah,” he sighed, now loudly, not even hiding it. “Love struggles. We have a theme here by now,” he chuckled. “That isn’t even funny, it’s just sad.”

Chanhee repressed the urge to speak up again and say his comment on how he was done with Youngkyun and Taeyang’s mutual pining. He did not intend to speak any more than necessary, at least not here. Maybe next time not only a card would be thrown at him, after all, they were in a kitchen.

Haechan uncovered the last card. 

_DEATH._

“I don’t like the look of that, can I choose a new one or something?” Taeyang furrowed his brows. “Like, no offence to Death but I don’t necessarily enjoy the look of that card.”

The tarot boy looked at him, then at Youngkyun’s pale face, and giggled. 

“Oh, it’s not anything bad,” he said with a calming smile. “It means change, a turning point. Maybe you will get that attention from a person you love. But it also means a new start. You might find someone else to love. Or you might find out that the person _is_ someone else than you think.”

Taeyang shot a quick look at Youngkyun and then back at the cards. “Is it like a Scooby-Doo kind of situation where you take the mask off the monster and they turn out to be like a random person you know? Or does he have a secret identity I don’t know about yet? I’m not good at reading into things.”

“Honestly? Only time will tell,” Haechan said and shuffled the cards. He then hid them and looked at his guests. “Well, who wants some cake?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello i hope u like what this fic is turning out to be !!


	7. Chapter 7

“I don’t like our future prognosis,” Seokwoo said as he started the car. Taeyang had just finished putting all of the equipment in the trunk of the car and got in the back of the car, next to Youngkyun who had a thoughtful look on his face. “I don’t _know_ if it’s real or not but I really don’t like it.”

“It’s not real, hon,” Chanhee sighed. He didn’t usually call his boyfriend _’hon’_ or other cheesy nicknames but drastic times called for drastic measures. “You can think up a random story for every card, get me a tarot card pile and I’ll tell you all about it. It’s just a way to leech off money from people,” he explained. “You should be more concerned about how the guy almost cut my ear off with a card.”

“I’m concerned about that, too. I’m multitasking,” the older said and started the drive home. Chanhee didn’t pick the subject up again for the entirety of the ride - he hoped that’d make it easier to forget what the tarot boy had said and make all the worries go away.

Chanhee looked out of the window, not focusing on anything in particular. He didn’t like that Haechan had said all that about him. It was true, the boy really was hiding behind a mask of immaturity, having the excuse that he was the youngest, but he wasn’t hiding from his _fears_. The only actual fear he had was losing Seokwoo or any of his friends but that wasn’t a valid fear because their relationships with each other were great.

“Can we stop at the grocery store? I’m gonna get some stuff now so I don’t have to go later,” Chanhee spoke up. “I wanna get to editing earlier so I don’t leave it until the end.”

“Yeah, sure,” Seokwoo agreed. “Can I stay at your place? I can cook.”

“Of course,” Chanhee smiled and put his hand on Seokwoo’s, which was on the gear stick. He liked when Seokwoo stayed over and, honestly, he wouldn’t really mind living together but it was too much of a pain in the ass to talk about because Chanhee lived with Youngkyun and Seokwoo lived with Taeyang and it was just a big question mark of how the living arrangements would work. Technically, they could all live together but Taeyang and Youngkyun still hadn’t confessed to each other. There was also a possibility of Seokwoo and Chanhee finding a new place for themselves or… there were just too many possibilities to look over all of them.

“I think we should let Taeyang edit this one,” Youngkyun said after he was sure that neither Chanhee nor Seokwoo was going to speak again. “Y’know, after that… _intense exchange_ you had with Haechan, I think it’d be better if he did. I can help if need be,” Youngkyun looked over at Taeyang who nodded as if to say that he agreed to the plan.

“Less work for me? I’m all in for that,” Chanhee shrugged. “Oh, by the way, Taeyang, are you staying over, too?” the boy asked, being the great wingman he was. “We could all have a movie night or something,” he suggested.

“I mean, I wouldn’t mind that if everyone agrees,” Taeyang eyed Youngkyun who wasn’t paying attention to anything anymore already and staring blankly out of the window. The boy did that often - just staring at something with a blank stare, it was quite creepy, especially when Chanhee would sometimes walk into the kitchen in the middle of the night and see him staring at the wall as if he had seen a <strike>ghost</strike> murderer there.

“Youngkyun, he means you,” Chanhee called out. Suddenly Youngkyun shook his head and looked at Chanhee, not understanding what had happened that his name was mentioned.

“What?” he asked, blinking innocently.

“I asked if Taeyang wanted to stay over at our place and he said yes if we don’t mind. I don’t, do you?” Chanhee asked with a raised eyebrow. By now it was just a _formality_ to ask Youngkyun because all of them actually knew that he wouldn’t say no in any case.

“O-oh,” he stumbled upon words. “Yeah, sure, of course, I don’t mind,” Youngkyun smiled warmly at Taeyang. Taeyang did the same. _Disgusting._

Soon enough they were in the parking lot of the local grocery store. Chanhee got out of the car first and Seokwoo followed immediately. Taeyang and Youngkyun did not. Chanhee laughed at that and Seokwoo shot a knowing look at the boy as he took the boy’s hand in his.

“So, what am I making tonight?” Seokwoo asked, taking a shopping cart.

“I don’t care, as long as we get popcorn and chips,” Chanhee replied, grabbing the first pack of chicken nuggets he saw. “I can cook, too. With supervision, though. I don’t have to edit so I’m gonna be free,” he said just in case. The younger didn’t want Seokwoo to be burdened or to feel like he had to do something just so he could stay over.

“Nah, I’ll cook, it’s all good. We can make, like, some kind of pasta or something,” Seokwoo hummed thoughtfully.

“Sounds perfect. But I’ll help. I can, uhh, wash the spaghetti strands or something,” Chanhee offered. He had no clue what pasta Seokwoo wanted to make and he didn’t know how to cook either, so that was the best help he could offer at the given moment.

“Amazing, that takes the most time when making it, I thought you’d never offer,” Seokwoo chuckled.

***

The four of them were sprawled on the floor, deciding that the sofas weren’t that comfy and that they all wanted to be together, not separated into two pairs, so now Chanhee was squished in between Seokwoo and Youngkyun, who was hugging both Chanhee and Taeyang at the same time, but he was leaning into Taeyang a bit more. Taeyang had his arms tightly around Youngkyun and his head on the boy’s shoulder.

“Can you pass me the chips?” Chanhee murmured quietly to not bother anyone too much. “Should we go to sleep after this film?” he whispered into Seokwoo’s ear. The boy’s eyes were already falling shut and he wasn’t about to watch another movie like he had expected to.

“Sure,” Seokwoo pressed a small kiss on Chanhee’s cheek and passed the boy his rightfully earned chips. “We can go now if you’d like?” he offered. “We’ve all seen this movie anyway.”

“Yeah, let’s go,” he mumbled and stretched out his arms. “Seokwoo and I are gonna go to sleep,” he informed Youngkyun and Taeyang.

“Goodnight, sleep well,” Youngkyun said, smiling at the younger.

“Sweet dreams,” Taeyang murmured sleepily. It looked like the man was about to fall asleep on Youngkyun’s shoulder.

“Goodnight,” Seokwoo and Chanhee said in unison.

The younger jumped into his bed and got under the covers immediately as they got to his room. Seokwoo got in right after and put an arm over the younger protectively as he always did.

“I’m… worried,” Seokwoo admitted quietly, making sure Chanhee was as close to him as possible. “Like, I know you don’t believe in the tarot thing and I don’t believe in it to an extent but still. He said that you’re gonna have a bad future and said something about love struggles to me but I don’t want that. I love you and I’m just… worried. Because so many things he said were right,” Seokwoo said. “I’m not saying it will come true but, y’know…”

“Hey,” Chanhee cupped Seokwoo’s cheeks, “nothing’s going to happen, okay? I love you and you love me, so there will be no love struggles. Think about it, we’ve been dating for a year already and we haven’t even had an argument because we communicate about our problems and we continue to do that. And the bad future thing… just forget it. I’ll be careful and so will you, and I will personally behead Youngkyun and Taeyang if they let anything happen to themselves. So we’ll all be just fine. Don’t worry, love.”

“Okay,” Seokwoo agreed, pulling Chanhee into a deeper hug. “You promise you’ll talk to me if anything happens, though?” he asked.

“Of course. And vice versa, right?” Chanhee wanted to make sure.

“Yeah. I promise,” Seokwoo whispered.

“Let’s sleep now, alright?” the younger yawned and kissed Seokwoo goodnight.

“Goodnight, baby,” Seokwoo murmured.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no time for notes i’m at a wedding hope u liked the chapter


	8. Chapter 8

“‘sup, m’ladies, m’theydies and m’gents,” Chanhee started, looking at the camera. “On the right there you can see Youngkyun being an absolute dumbass and trying to walk down the train tracks - kids, don’t try this at… your nearest train station, not safe,” Chanhee pointed out. “It’s safe here because no trains go through here apparently. I can’t tell you much more because I don’t know anything, though. Youngkyun does but it seems like he’s having fun on his own there.”

Chanhee walked over to Youngkyun from behind quietly and pushed the older boy, not strongly enough so he’d fall but just so he would lose his balance. Youngkyun let out a high-pitched squeal and turned around to face Chanhee.

“You scared me!” Youngkyun said accusingly. “Are we ready to start filming already?”

“The camera’s on, I’ve done the intro already. We’re just waiting for you now,” Chanhee said. “Lay the story on us, I’m interested. Skeptical as always, but interested. I like abandoned places.”

“Right. Let’s go sit somewhere and I can tell you all about it,” Youngkyun hummed. He led the way to the stairs in front of the station and sat down there. “Seems good enough. We won’t have to sit for long anyway, so it’s alright,” the boy patted the place next to him so Chanhee would sit there.

“Aight,” Chanhee quickly said as he sat down. Taeyang got in position and gave the boys a thumbs-up that they were both in shot and they could start talking about the place.

“So, this is the infamous abandoned original Daegu train station. It was only active for two weeks in 1945 and then shut down because of how dangerous it ended up being. In those two weeks, three people fell on the train tracks, one fell down the stairs and another two had a piece of the ceiling on their heads, after which the station was officially shut down. Now even the train tracks that go past here aren’t in use,” Youngkyun said.

“Why was this building not remade into something else then? Like, it’s a good place, it could’ve been like a shopping mall or something,” Chanhee thought out loud. “They could’ve, like, destroyed it and built a new thing here. Recycling!”

“It was technically sold to a man who said that he’d build a hotel here but he died after purchasing the land and no one else bought it again. People came to see it but said that it had a bad energy or when they said that they wanted to buy it, something happened to them. One woman got stuck in the janitor’s closet for hours and no one could let her out, and after that she decided not to buy it. Another man fell down the stairs and nearly died and realised that he’d rather not buy it. So now the building is occupied by rats, cockroaches and termites or something.”

“Oh hell yeah, can we get a rat as a pet as a souvenir? I’ve always wanted to train a rat to bite people’s ankles,” Chanhee said excitedly. He smiled even wider when he saw Youngkyun’s face drop and mimic crying.

“If you want rabies, you’re welcome to do that but I’m moving out then. Good luck paying rent alone,” Youngkyun sighed and got up. “Time to go exploring,” he offered Chanhee his hand to help the boy get up.

“I’ll help you pack your bags, I’ll get Seokwoo to move in and you can live with Taeyang, I’m sure he won’t mind,” Chanhee teased. “I wanna try the janitor’s closet but you’re opening the door this time.”

“We’re gonna check everything. Except the stairs, contrary to a popular belief, I don’t want you to bash your head in yet,” Youngkyun clarified. The boys entered the station, Taeyang following them with the camera.

The building had tall ceilings and they could hear all of their footsteps echo loudly. It was obviously made to be an elegant station, intricate details decorating the walls. Some of the glass windows were painted but the beautiful imagery was destroyed, seeing the broken glass. Great aesthetic but it was sad to see, knowing that it probably took a lot of work from the artists and now it was just abandoned.

“I’m going up the stairs, whether you want it or not,” Chanhee warned, looking around.

“Kang Chanhee, I will tie you up if I have to. You’re not going even near the stairs,” Youngkyun shook his head. “We do have rope in the car and I’m not afraid to use it.”

“Surprising, seeing as to how you’re scared of everything,” Chanhee mocked. “Also, that’s kinky. What do y’all get up to in that car?” he questioned with a raised eyebrow. “Nevermind, I don’t even want to know. I support you and your bondage fantasies but I don’t want to know about them.”

“Chanhee, I beg of you, stop,” Youngkyun groaned. “Rope can be used for much more than bondage, so I’m concerned that’s the first thing you think of, hearing the word rope. _I’m_ the one that doesn’t want to know what your bondage fantasies are,” he tried to hide his laugh.

“It’s just because I live with you. You’re the one who has corrupted my innocent mind, I was an angel before I met you and now I have turned into… an evil minded bastard. All because of you,” Chanhee acted offended. Truth was, he had never really had an innocent mind but it was always nice to annoy Youngkyun more.

“If anyone here is an angel, then that’s me,” the older rolled his eyes. “You’ve always been an evil minded bastard and I have had no influence in making you that way.”

“How could you say that about your bestest friend?” Chanhee wiped a fake tear. “I always knew you were a fake friend. To think that I trusted you and loved you with my entire heart… really makes you think about who your real friends are,” he shook his head, walking a few steps in the direction of the stairs, making sure Youngkyun doesn’t realise that he’s on his way to them.

The boy whistled at Youngkyun to get his attention and started climbing the stairs like the absolute dumbass he was. The boy was walking backwards because he wanted to see the older’s reaction which made it even worse because the stairs were incredibly badly designed.

“Chanhee, come down, please don’t be on the stairs,” Youngkyun pleaded, his eyes wide. “I know you don’t think you’re gonna fall but I’m scared and I’m responsible for you.”

“I’m an adult, I’m responsible for myself. I have health insurance. I think. Do I have health insurance?” he pondered out loud. “I mean, I paid for something. Who knows?” he shrugged and turned around to face the stairs and make sure he’s not going to fall just because he wanted to show off to Youngkyun.

“Chanhee, just come back down,” Youngkyun got on the first step of the stairs and looked them up and down, as if considering his options. “We all know, you don’t fear death, blah blah blah, no need to risk it.”

“Come and get me, if you want me down there,” Chanhee stuck out his tongue and ran up. He hadn’t fallen, that was a good sign. He looked expectantly at Youngkyun, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Why are you making me do this?” Youngkyun sighed. He tightly gripped the railing and took a few steps upwards. Taeyang started following but as soon as he was on the first step, Youngkyun spoke up again: “Just stay down here, I don’t want you to get hurt. And you, uh, have equipment, too, so you can just film from here.”

Taeyang did as he was told while Youngkyun climbed the stairs way slower than people usually did. Meanwhile Chanhee explored the second floor.

It wasn’t really a whole second floor, it was kind of a balcony but inside and there was nothing there. He supposed it was meant for when there would be too many people for the station to handle but other than that, there was no other real use for it. Though there was a door with an ‘employees only’ sign on it. The boy tried it. Luckily for him it was unlocked.

It looked empty, except for a few boxes here and there and a desk. He turned on his flashlight to see if there were any rats on the floor - thankfully for him, there weren’t. Only a few bugs crawling around but that didn’t bother Chanhee. He squatted down to look at the contents of the boxes - they were mostly just filled with random papers and office supplies.

Chanhee got up again and went up to the desk. There was a book on it, open on a page with some text that Chanhee couldn’t read. It seemed like the Russian alphabet. He picked up the book and squinted to read the text - it could’ve been just very bad handwriting in Korean. No luck.

Chanhee looked around the room again and that’s when he saw it. A rat. There was a rat standing on one of the boxes.

The boy wasn’t proud of what he did next but it was for the greater good.

Chanhee screeched loudly, probably worrying Youngkyun, threw the book at it and ran out of the room as fast as he could. A single page of the book stayed in his hand. The boy saw that Youngkyun was _still_ on the stairs, but now talking to Taeyang - probably flirting mercilessly, so he just started running down them.

There was a reason parents always told their children to _not_ run up and down the stairs and it was because they could trip and fall down. And that’s what happened to Chanhee, too. It didn’t really feel like _tripping_, more like someone had pushed him but as there was no one behind Chanhee, he quickly denied that possibility.

Chanhee had never been more thankful that Youngkyun was a scaredy-cat who cared about him because luckily for him, the older caught Chanhee safely in his arms.

“What the heck, are you okay? What happened?” Youngkyun questioned, still tightly holding Chanhee, so the boy doesn’t fall again.

“I re-thinked - re-thought? - the pet rat thing. Rats are scary, I’m scared, I don’t want a rat,” he took back his earlier words. “I was looking around that room and saw a rat and threw a book at it. I had to run,” he continued on explaining, not sure his words made any sense. Frankly, his heart was racing too fast for his coherence to be his main concern - almost falling down the stairs while fleeing from a rat was not the way he wanted to go.

“And that’s why you decided to roll down the stairs?” Youngkyun raised an eyebrow. “I told you these stairs are cursed and yet you still decide to _run_ down them?” he took a hold of Chanhee’s hand and slowly led him down the stairs. Slower than people usually walked but the younger’s heart was still racing a bit so he didn’t want to trip again.

“The only cursed thing here is your way of thinking,” Chanhee mumbled. “And the way there are actual rats here. That’s also very, very cursed. I hate that.”

“I remember someone here said they wanted to train a rat to bite people’s ankles or something like that?” Youngkyun hummed, satisfied with how little it had taken to make Chanhee take his words back. Maybe someday he’d do the same with his views on the supernatural.

“I think that was Taeyang,” Chanhee shrugged and jumped down the last two steps of the stairs. “Anyway, where to now?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #letchanheehaveapetrat make it trend guys


	9. Chapter 9

“I was thinking we could do the spirit box, now that I’ve changed the batteries,” Youngkyun said. “Then we can go to the janitor’s closet, each five minutes? Then the train tracks and then whatever we see fit,” he continued. It seemed like he had already planned everything out. As he tended to, to be honest - Youngkyun never wanted to stay in _haunted_ places for longer than necessary.

“Oh fuck, the echo’s gonna be horrible here. Rip in pieces to our ears, I guess,” Chanhee sighed. “Turn it on, let’s get it, haha,” the boy let out the fakest laugh he could muster and cringed visibly but that didn’t stop him from sticking his tongue out like all the eboys on Tik Tok did.

“All you have to do now is get out a juul, do a peace sign and you’ll officially be legal to murder because I’m not living with you if you ever say or do that again,” Youngkyun shook his head and turned on the spirit box. Chanhee had been right, the echo was horrible - it felt like all the building was just static up until the point where Chanhee could vividly imagine TV static before his eyes.

“Noted,” Chanhee did finger guns at Youngkyun and let out the same fake laugh as before. “What’s up, ghosts? What do you do for fun around here?”

“Is that really how you do small talk?” Youngkyun questioned, raising an eyebrow at the younger. Usually when Youngkyun started conversations with _alleged_ ghosts, he asked for some kind of confirmation that they were there, rather than asking actual open questions but both of the boys had very different approaches, obviously.

“Do you have a problem with that?” Chanhee shot back. “I’m not gonna ask them about the weather, duh,” he rolled his eyes as if that was what Youngkyun would’ve prefered.

As expected, there was no response from the spirit box.

“Right, let’s try a different approach,” Chanhee hummed. “I took a slip of paper from upstairs, can any of y’all ghosts, like, translate or something? Because either this is not Korean or that person’s handwriting is very, _very_ bad. Or maybe I’m going blind. Probably the last one.”

“Show me,” Youngkyun stretched his arm out so Chanhee could give him the paper. The younger did as he was told and Youngkyun examined it. “Yeah, that’s definitely not Korean. It reminds me of those posts where they show you Russian cursive and it just looks like someone did squiggles.”

“Update, both Youngkyun and I are going blind, it’s not just me, guys!” Chanhee said excitedly and snickered.

“Show me, too,” Taeyang whispered, attempting to be quiet but having his whisper echo through the building. Youngkyun passed the note to the camera man, who seemed to be intently reading. “It’s a song,” Taeyang announced. “Like, a creepy Russian song.”

“You speak Russian?” Chanhee raised an eyebrow. “Translate it, I want Youngkyun to be scared.” the boy laughed evilly. “Or better yet, sing it.”

“I don’t remember the melody, so I can’t sing it but I can translate it,” Taeyang murmured, reading over it again. “It goes like:

_’Tili tili bom  
Close your eyes quicker,  
Someone is by your window  
And knocking at the door,_

_‘Tili tili bom  
Screams the nightly bird,  
He’s already gotten in your house  
To those that aren’t sleeping._

_He’s walking,  
He’s already…’_”

_”Close,”_ the spirit box said through the static.

“Yeah, that’s the last word,” Taeyang murmured. “It’s not the whole song but they probably couldn’t fit it in one page. “But, y’know, all of it goes in a similar manner. Basically threatening that a monster’s gonna get to the child if they don’t sleep. As you do, very child friendly lullaby, ten out of ten would recommend to sing to your children,” Taeyang concluded, giving the note back to Youngkyun who in return passed it onto Chanhee.

“Very motivating, I’d say. It’s not said that the monster would kill the child, is it? Maybe the tili tili bom man would just cuddle the kid to sleep, let’s not assume the worst,” Chanhee pondered out loud.

_ ”Bad.” _

“Fuck off, ghosts, I stand by my analysis and it’s good. Also, Kyun, you never told me that we have Russian ghosts here,” Chanhee hummed. “What I’m more interested in than the existence of ghosts is why the fuck there are Russian lullabies left here, in a _train station_.”

_ ”Mother… die… son.” _

“That’d make sense because the people that the ceiling part fell on were a mother and a son. They might’ve been Russian or something,” Youngkyun said, his face paler than ever. Not even whitewashing idol fansites could stand close to the paleness of the boy’s skin now.

“Okay, and now it’s time to turn the spirit box off or your face is not going to get any blood anymore ever,” Chanhee sighed, took the spirit box out of the older’s hands and turned it off immediately. It was too loud, the static kept ringing in his ears even after turning it off.

They hadn’t heard before because of the spirit box but it sounded like it was raining now, which meant that they’d have to get back to the car while it was pouring heavily. Chanhee couldn’t stand rain.

“Let’s go see the janitor’s closet? Weed out any rats and stuff,” Youngkyun murmured, still a bit in shock after what the spirit box had uttered.

“I’ve gotten over it, now I want a pet rat again. Let’s get one,” Chanhee excitedly said and started going in an unknown direction but then stopped, realising he had no idea where he was going. “Lead the way.”

Though Chanhee didn’t immediately follow, the boy looked at the windows that now had rain drops on them. It looked kind of surreal. Especially the painted ones. A woman was painted on one of the windows, who now looked like she was crying. It looked truly sorrowful, Chanhee was mesmerized by the sight.

“You coming?” Youngkyun called out to Chanhee. It was like the younger was taken out of a trance.

“Yeah, yeah,” Chanhee turned around and followed.

They walked past the cash registers that had been severely vandalized - people probably looking for money that could magically have been left behind, and soon enough were at the janitor’s closet. The door had several holes in it, though in inconspicuous places so Chanhee didn’t notice them right away. What was _very_ conspicuous was the huge magenta pentagram drawn on the door. First time he sa a colour other than black, red or brown used to draw a pentagram and he liked the turn of events.

“So who’s going in first?” Chanhee asked, first checking behind the handle and then opening the door. Luckily, it seemed like it was rat-free and he wouldn’t have to try to outrun living rabies. “I vote you, so you can attract all the roaches and when I go in, there are no left.”

“I was tricked into going in first last time so it’s your turn now. I’m sure you’ll make great friends with the roaches, seeing as you are one yourself,” Youngkyun mocked back. They could hear Taeyang quietly sigh at their childishness but alas, he couldn’t do anything about it.

“I mean, you have friends similar to yourself, so you didn’t really say anything good about yourself, buddy,” Chanhee stuck out his tongue and went in. “To think that I’ve been out of the closet for merely two years now and am forced back in already. Sad reality, folks, you saw it here first.”

“Shut up,” Youngkyun groaned.

“This is the highest level of homophobia known to man. Forced back into the closet _and_ silenced once again. I don’t think this show is about ghosts anymore but rather vast homophobia and discrimination,” Chanhee exclaimed, shaking his head and pulling the most serious face he could.

“Chanhee, I’ll never talk to you ever again,” Youngkyun closed the door behind the boy, signalling that he wanted the conversation to end once and for all.

“You say that as if it’s a threat,” Chanhee said and then got quiet.

He had a flashlight so he could see his surroundings - though there was nothing much to see, a few shelves in front of him that had years worth of dust on them and a few things for cleaning that were decades past the expiration date.

A minute had gone past. If they were doing it as usual, then around six more were left, but might as well be more if Youngkyun decides to flirt with Taeyang as he tended to. Chanhee flashed the flashlight on the ground to make sure there were no other living things with him. Only some ants making their way across the room, thankfully.

Sure, there were no living things in the room but Chanhee could hear some behind the wall. It was like someone or something was scratching the wall vigorously. It covered more area than a rat could. But what did Chanhee know about rats - only that he was one. There might as well be a population of rats living in the wall that was trying to get through it.

Chanhee knew that ghosts weren’t real and, purely hypothetically if they were then they had better things to do than _scratch a wall_ but he couldn’t help but feel eerie at best. The possibility of something getting through the wall was scary.

But as soon as it had started, it was suddenly silent again. Not a noise, not even Youngkyun and Taeyang obnoxiously flirting behind the door. Chanhee took this as a hint that he could turn the spirit box on and try to do something in the time left stuck there. Perhaps communicate with whatever was behind the wall. Could rat ghosts use the spirit box? If so, Chanhee was more than sure he’d hear thousands of squeaks through the static.

“Hey there, ghosts and others, wanna talk for the next,” Chanhee looked at his wristwatch, “four minutes? I’m sure you’ve been bored for the last few decades. And I’ve been more than bored for the last two minutes, so go on, prove your existence.”

_ ”Feet.” _

“Oh no, do we have a ghost with a foot fetish?” Chanhee questioned, breaking out in laughter. “Youngkyun was right, this is a scary place. Please don’t vore my feet, thank you.”

_ ”Plethora.” _

“No, as far as I know, I’ve only got two feet. That’s not a plethora yet,” Chanhee tried to keep up the conversation with random snippets of the radio. He knew that there wasn’t an actual person on the other end or a ghost manipulating the energy or whatever it was but it was better than standing there in silence.

Except the neverending static was making Chanhee’s head hurt so he turned the spirit box off, having another three minutes to spend stuck in the small room. The boy looked around again - to the ceiling, which was cleaner than the boy had expected, then to the walls, which were covered in graffiti and a _’help’_ scratched into the wall that Chanhee hadn’t seen before, even though he had looked at the walls pretty thoroughly before.

“Is it bad that I want to take a picture of that?” Chanhee pondered out loud. “The aesthetic, the _v i b e_ of it is cool,” the boy explained just in case that moment is left in the video.

Chanhee didn’t hold back on his urges and took a picture of it. Once he was done with that (took him way longer than necessary - adjusting the lighting and angle took a lot of time), the door opened.

“Time’s up,” Youngkyun announced. “How was it?”

“The ghost there has a foot fetish, I’m sure you’ll be great friends,” Chanhee chuckled and passed the spirit box onto the older. “It’s dusty, so put on a mask if you have one but, y’know, nothing special. No one there, just four walls. Have fun!”

“Foot fetish?” Youngkyun questioned. That was a thing you would mishear, to be fair, because not every day Chanhee said a thing like that. “Why and how do you know that?”

“The first thing I heard the spirit box say was ‘feet’, so I’m just assuming. Go in, I’m gonna explore while you’re there,” Chanhee said, lightly shoving Youngkyun in the direction of the closet.

“Stay safe and don’t go up the stairs, I beg of you,” Youngkyun sighed and walked into the closet. “Promise me you won’t go upstairs?”

“I promise, now shut up and stay there, I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Chanhee closed the door on Youngkyun and went back to the main entrance of the station, Taeyang closely following him and capturing his every move.

The boy looked around and tried to imagine what a person would’ve seen first when the station was still active and not just a broken down, rat infested ruins. Probably the masterfully painted windows that were now just glass shards. Or the skillfully crafted pillars that now had graffiti on them and were chipped down bit by bit. It was sad that so many artists had put in their time and effort for it to just be ruined like this.

“How did they manage to redirect all the trains away from here? Did people believe this place is so haunted that they were willing to pay so much to put down new train tracks? Man, no words, the lengths people will go, huh?” Chanhee pondered. He often told himself not to go into the logistics of things when it came to people that believed in ghosts because more often than not - there was no logic, but he couldn't not do it. He really couldn't understand how their minds worked.

The boy walked further and stopped at the stairs that were on the left. He didn't climb them, he had already been upstairs, nothing to do there again, but he wanted to look. Maybe there was a fatal flaw in the design that led to _fatal_ results in some cases but he couldn’t see anything more than some steps having cracks in them from the age. People were just clumsy, that’s the best explanation he could come up with.

Remote stations didn’t really have a lot in them so the exploring didn’t take too much time and he couldn’t go out to the train tracks either. The boy waited for the rest of the time that was left sitting on the stairs and then went to free Youngkyun from the _horrors_ of the closet.

“Come out,” Chanhee said loudly so Youngkyun could hear.

“I’m gay,” Youngkyun did finger guns at Chanhee as he stepped out of the janitor’s closet. The younger looked Youngkyun straight in the eye, turned around and walked away. He could not tolerate this kind of humour. Right before he did that, though, he saw a pile of dust and some kind of… redness right were Youngkyun had been standing, right at his _feet_. Chanhee didn’t remember that being there when they had first gotten there.

The boy didn’t stop until he was in the car, next to Seokwoo, even if he could hear Youngkyun calling out for him. The older needed to learn from his mistakes, from his pathetic attempt at humour.


	10. just because he has a fever doesn't mean he's sick, he's just awfully hot

Usually, Chanhee was the one that woke up late. The boy would wake up at around ten or eleven only to see Youngkyun in the kitchen trying to master the cooking skill - only to once again prove that real life did not in any way resemble Sims in which a person could cook for a while and level up because Youngkyun’s efforts went by with no results. Or on other days Chanhee’s roommate was in the living room, on the computer, a suspicious burnt food smell still in the air.

This morning, however, was different. Chanhee was pretty sure that the older had gone to sleep fairly late, even later than Chanhee - something that happened maybe once every two months -, so now the younger boy was awake before Youngkyun. It seemed unnatural, that was the best way to describe it. Chanhee was so used to their morning routine that he had no idea what to do now.

The boy yawned and stretched quietly and decided to be productive. He could get some breakfast, no need to order or nearly burn down the apartment trying to cook. Their living arrangements, once again, proved not to be thought out well - Seokwoo and Taeyang lived together while both of them knew how to cook well while Youngkyun and Chanhee were both useless in the kitchen.

Chanhee quietly left the apartment and walked to the bakery down the road, where he got a few sweet buns that both Youngkyun and he liked. The boy stopped at Starbucks and got two ice lattes and in a few more minutes he was back home.

The boy was too nice, so obviously the only way to make the situation _better_ was to…

“Wake up, bitch, I got breakfast,” Chanhee yelled as he barged into Youngkyun’s room. The older flinched visibly and blinked slowly at Chanhee. “Move,” the boy ordered as he plopped down next to Youngkyun who still seemed like he was trying to figure out where, what and who he was.

Youngkyun sat up in bed and looked at Chanhee with a questioning look. He was probably wondering why the boy was up so early and why he had decided to barge in like that. Youngkyun yawned and stretched, cracking a few bones in the process.

“What time is it?” he asked, his voice husky.

“Barely eight,” Chanhee said and had a bite of a cinnamon bun. He passed one of the ice lattes to Youngkyun and opened up the bag of buns a bit wider. “Why is your room so cold, what the fuck?” the younger shivered and got under the blanket, sliding closer to Youngkyun who was always warm.

“It’s hot in here,” Youngkyun furrowed his eyebrows. The older put one hand on Chanhee’s forehead and sighed. “You have a cold. I told you to take a jacket but no, of course not, you’re invincible,” he put an arm around Chanhee to warm the boy up.

“I don’t have a cold, the room has a cold,” Chanhee objected. “I don’t get sick that easily,” he shook his head and rested it on Youngkyun’s shoulder afterwards, suddenly feeling sleepy again. He wasn’t going to sleep on his shoulder or in his room in general but there was nothing wrong with resting his eyes for a little.

“Sure, you don’t,” Youngkyun murmured, not convinced, and checked the boy’s forehead again. “Eat some more and then try to sleep it off, okay? I’ll get you some meds later,” he said, playing with the boy’s hair.

“I don’t need meds, I’m okay,” Chanhee said and finished his cinnamon bun. “Just cold and sleepy.”

“Then sleep, sweetheart, you should get some rest,” Youngkyun said in a calming tone that made Chanhee even sleepier than he was before. The younger felt his friend slowly take the iced latte that he was holding away and wrapped his now-free hands around Youngkyun tightly. “Sleep,” the older repeated calmly.

Maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

***

Next time Chanhee woke up, he was tightly tucked into Youngkyun’s bed. The boy barely even got out of the blanket burrito he had been made into. It was already getting dark outside, so Chanhee estimated that it was around four pm. The boy stretched as he got out of the bed and put Youngkyun’s blanket around him as he emerged from the room.

Chanhee heard two voices coming from the kitchen so the boy waddled over there.

“There he is,” Youngkyun said upon noticing the younger and smiled. “Feeling alright?” he asked and walked over to the boy. The older put his lips on Chanhee’s forehead to check his temperature and ran his hand through Chanhee’s hair. “Sit down, I’ll make you some tea. You’re burning up again.”

Chanhee didn’t do as he was told - did he ever? - but instead waddled over to the other man in the room. Seokwoo was standing at the stove, a worried look on his face, and making something. He hugged Chanhee tightly and the boy hugged his boyfriend back, making him a part of the blanket burrito.

“I’m making some chicken soup, love,” he murmured. “I didn’t know what you’d like, so I thought that something light would be best,” the man explained. Chanhee merely hummed in response.

“Are you staying over?” Chanhee looked up at the man expectantly.

“If you want me to,” Seokwoo smiled and brushed the younger’s hair off so it doesn’t go in the boy’s eyes.

“Yeah,” Chanhee rested his head on Seokwoo’s chest, still holding the man and being held in a tight hug. “We can watch a movie or something,” he hummed. Chanhee hadn’t seen the man for only a day but he had already started to miss him and he knew that the feeling was mutual.

“Perfect,” Seokwoo pressed a kiss on Chanhee’s forehead. “Go sit down, sweetheart, drink some tea, okay? I need to finish cooking.”

“Okay,” Chanhee smiled and sat down in front of Youngkyun. The older passed him a cup of herbal smelling tea and a thermometer. Chanhee made a face at the sight. “I’m not sick,” he insisted.

“Then prove it, show me that you’re not having a fever and I’ll believe you,” Youngkyun raised an eyebrow. “You have glassy eyes, you feel cold, you’ve been sniffling all the time, your forehead is burning, do I need to continue?”

“That doesn’t mean I’m sick,” Chanhee protested. The younger hated being ill, so, as with all things he didn’t like, he just denied it and hoped it’d go away on its own.

“Chanhee, I will stick that thermometer up your… redacted if you don’t check your temperature,” Youngkyun threatened. Youngkyun was not good at threats but he still tried which was an endearing quality of his.

“Try me, bitch,” Chanhee stuck out his tongue and crossed his arms over his chest.

“God, help me,” Youngkyun sighed and hid his face in his hands.

“Chanhee, sweetheart, please check your temperature,” Seokwoo softly spoke up. “We’re worried,” he added. That was the voice Chanhee couldn’t say no to, so the boy sighed and took the thermometer.

“This is just homophobic,” Youngkyun said, exasperated. “How am I worse than Seokwoo, why did you listen to him, not me?”

“One of you is my boyfriend and the other’s a little bitch, that’s why,” Chanhee replied smugly. Youngkyun let out a sigh in response and didn’t pick the subject up again. It was impossible to argue with Chanhee on matters like these, that he knew way too well by now.

“Pass me the thermometer, it’s been like five minutes already,” Youngkyun demanded and stretched his hand forward. Chanhee did as he was told without even looking at the thermometer. What was there to see anyway?

“Thirty-eight point four…” Youngkyun furrowed his brows. “Drink the tea, love, you can’t say you’re not sick, you have a fever,” the older grew more and more concerned.

“Just because I have a fever doesn’t mean I’m sick. I’m just really hot and even the thermometer can tell,” Chanhee persisted and took a sip of the tea. “I’m only drinking this because I like the taste, not because I’m sick.”

“Of course,” Youngkyun sighed. “As long as you drink it all. I’ll get you some NyQuil later.”


	11. Chapter 11

“G’day, ladies, enbies and fuckers,” Chanhee flashed a peace sign. “Tonight we’re exploring… wait, what are we exploring?” he suddenly asked Youngkyun who had answered the question already thrice on the car ride there. Chanhee tended to have memory problems if he had had RedQuil™ - the mixture of DayQuil, NyQuil and Red Bull, all in one. Not only memory problems but problems just in general but about that later.

“Please let me do the intro,” Youngkyun pleaded again. He had asked for that about a dozen times but Chanhee was too stubborn to let the older have it his way. “It’s the old Opera Theater of Busan City.”

“Suffer,” Chanhee grinned and started again. “G’day, or rather - g’night, ladies, enbies and fellow fuckers! Tonight we’re exploring the old Opera Theater of Busan City. It is said that you can hear goblins walking around the basement and werewolves howling at the moon there.”

“Ghosts. And demons. Not goblins and werewolves,” Youngkyun sighed. “Because while ghosts and demons exist, goblins and werewolves don’t. You, as an all supernatural denier, should be ecstatic to deny their existence, no?”

“I find werewolves, vampires, goblins and trolls way more interesting than all kinds of spirits,” Chanhee shrugged and sniffled. Everyone - Seokwoo, Youngkyun and Taeyang - had tried to stop the boy from making a video that week - after all, they had videos filmed ahead already, but again, Chanhee was way more stubborn than necessary. He had basically threatened them all until they had to succumb to what Chanhee wanted. As always, it wasn’t anything new. Chanhee got things his way nine times out of ten.

“Of course you do,” Youngkyun shook his head in defeat.

“Okay, tell us about this place. Are we gonna see the Phantom of the Opera or the ghost of Hamilton or those furries in Cats?” Chanhee said as he marched toward the entrance of the building. “Furries are scarier than any demon, you have to agree with me.”

“We’re not seeing any furries tonight. Or ever, hopefully,” Youngkyun said and opened the door, letting Chanhee and Taeyang in first. “Let’s go to the main auditorium, we can sit down there and I’ll tell you about what has happened here and why this place is considered to be haunted,” he said and took the younger boy by hand, so he could lead him to where they needed to be.

Youngkyun didn’t trust Chanhee to follow him on his own because the boy was too hyperactive, due to having drunk two Red Bulls, and delirious because of the Quil™.

As soon as they had gotten to the main auditorium, Chanhee broke free from Youngkyun’s hold and ran toward the stage. He didn’t hear anyone running after him so he counted that as a success. The boy could finally pursue his acting career, even if it was just in a supposedly haunted old opera in the middle of the night for the audience of two and maybe a bunch of cockroaches and half-dead spiders.

Chanhee got onto the stage, with some trouble but alas, he did.

“To be,” Chanhee stretched out his arm as if he was holding the skull from the famous scene in it and looked at it, “or not to be, that is the question,” the boy dramatically quoted. He didn’t know any other text so after that, he came to the front of the stage and bowed as if he had finished acting a whole play. In the place of applause that the boy rightfully deserved, he got a bunch of ‘boo’s from Youngkyun. All he did was criticise Chanhee, as always.

Chanhee crossed his arms over his chest and pouted.

“That is exactly what Shakespeare would’ve wanted and you’re a fool to criticise me,” Chanhee said and got down from the stage. “Do a better job and we’ll talk,” he added. The boy sat down in the first row of seats, exactly in the middle so he had a good view of the stage.

“I mean, Shakespeare was… an interesting guy, I can’t really say you’re wrong,” Youngkyun hummed as he got closer. Before he sat down, he helped Taeyang get on the stage and passed him the camera. The two looked at each other with too much softness in their eyes. So, normally, Chanhee had to boo them.

Youngkyun _glared_ at Chanhee and his eyes were yelling that he was ready to commit non-lethal homicide. That was what he got for criticising Chanhee’s acting skills. The boy smirked and patted the seat next to his. Youngkyun sat next to him in a few seconds, still sulking at his friend while Taeyang was setting up the camera on the stage.

“So, tell us about what resides here. I wanna know who I’m going to be insulting,” Chanhee started after Taeyang gave him the thumbs up, signalling that the camera was ready and filming.

“You already know my name, you seem to only insult me,” Youngkyun pouted. Chanhee didn’t get if that was because he had ruined the moment between Taeyang and Youngkyun or just in general. Both worked.

“Aww,” Chanhee ruffled his friend’s hair, “someone’s _angy_,” the boy cooed, doing a voice people did when talking to babies. And what was Youngkyun if not an oversized baby.

“No, I’m not,” he protested. Chanhee could see Taeyang mouth _’he is’_ behind the camera and he let out a laugh. “Anyway,” Youngkyun started with a loud sigh, “let me tell you about the spirits that haunt this place because oh boy - there are many of them and not all of them are as friendly as they may seem.”

“You’re implying that some ghosts seem friendly. Are there ghosts that seem friendly to you? Because you’ve always been a wuss and are always scared of them as far as I know,” Chanhee questioned maybe a tiny bit too quickly to be understandable. 

“It’s just an expression,” Youngkyun said. “Now shut up and let me talk.”

“Sure, boss,” Chanhee snickered at Youngkyun’s attempt at being authoritative. The older wasn’t too good at that.

“Okay, so,” he finally started, “at the very start, this place was alright. It was very popular and plays happened here all the time and it was always very crowded. So many rich people came here, actually, that they built two new hotels in the area since the demand was so high. Though, after the downfall of the theatre, they went from deluxe hotels where only the rich stay to your normal everyday hotel with owners that struggle to make a living.”

“That’s the real scary thing about this - not ghosts or whatever the fuck but how capitalism once again fails us,” Chanhee interrupted. It looked like Youngkyun was ready to deck Chanhee if that’s what it took. But then again - wasn’t he always? “We should stay at one of the hotels - help the economy or whatever.”

“Chanhee, I’m literally going to tape your mouth shut,” Youngkyun threatened. “Please let me at the very least get to the point.”

“Go ahead, I’m just fulfilling my anti-capitalist agenda.”

“Of course,” Youngkyun composed himself to not actually start strangling the younger. “As I said, at first this place was doing just fine. The demand was high and everything seemed to go amazingly. But then the first death happened. A man from the light crew fell down the ladder while climbing up to fix one of the lights that was slightly off centre - the play went on, despite most of the actors knowing what happened because there were some important politicians in the audience. People speculate that that’s the reason all the other consecutive deaths went on to happen - the man that died in the accident was angry that no one cared about the fact he was in pain and then ultimately died so he went on to haunt the place and kill off others.”

“I mean, I’d be pretty pissed, too, if I died and everyone else was just like _’omg wherefore art thou romeo, lmao’_,” Chanhee shrugged. “I’m not saying that’s a good thing to do but, y’know, I don’t blame him,” he continued. “Okay, nevermind, I do blame him but you do get what I mean,” the boy rambled on as a seemingly infinite stream of words kept escaping his lips.

“Anyway,” Youngkyun interrupted as he put one of his hands in front of Chanhee’s mouth, effectively shutting the boy up. His hand stayed there as he kept talking. “So, the dude falls and dies, boohoo. Happens, right? No! Because already next week during a play one of the heavy lights falls on the actress who had the main role during the play the previous week. Creepy coincidence. Except it’s not a coincidence because when the lights were getting checked soon after the death of that actress, a guy making sure they’re stable _also_ falls from a ladder.”

Youngkyun looked like he was about to continue talking but Chanhee, having too much energy from the unnecessarily huge amounts of Red Bull, also wanted to talk. So the boy did the only logical thing he could - he licked Youngkyun’s hand so the older would take it away from his mouth. The results were immediate - Youngkyun’s hand shot away from Chanhee’s mouth in less than a second.

“Okay, now that I can talk-”

“That’s disgusting, why are you like this? Ew,” Youngkyun rubbed his hand on his jeans to get off Chanhee’s saliva.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Chanhee laid his wisdom upon the older. “There is so much falling in what you’re telling me. Are you sure it’s not just that they have really bad balance? Or a very, very bad ladder?”

“How shitty does a ladder have to be to not look physically broken but make people fall off of it?” Youngkyun questioned. “And yeah, sure, one person just has bad balance like the first dude, but the second one? That’s too many people without balance. And how do you explain the light falling onto the actress?”

“The light could’ve fallen on the actress because when the first dude was trying to fix the light, he fucked something up so it fell down. And two people without balance really isn’t that many people so it’s possible,” Chanhee debunked as best he could but he had a feeling that nothing he had said made any sense. The boy wanted to blame it on the RedQuil™, but he knew that it couldn’t be blamed for his dumbassery.

“Okay, but that’s not the end. Let me finish,” Youngkyun furrowed his brows. “At that point, people had caught on with the whole dying people thing and fewer people came to see plays here. That marked the downfall of this place. But what really did it was when apparently the lights turned on in the night by themselves - I say by themselves but we all know it was the light dude’s fault - and got so hot that they started a fire right here in this auditorium. First, the curtain caught on fire and then the stage. The cleaning crew arrived at five in the morning so they noticed first and called the firefighters so the fire didn’t get out but the damage was done. The main auditorium was burnt to a crisp. The owners of this place paid big money to restore it but no one wanted to come here anymore so it’s now nothing but the home of a few particularly angry ghosts.”

“I, too, am particularly angry,” Chanhee kinned.

“That’s it for the main story but as we explore the backstage and other places, I’ll tell you about the activity that can be seen today and other things,” Youngkyun continued, ignoring Chanhee’s remark.


	12. Chapter 12

“Have you already planned where we’re staying for our private investigations or are we improvising?” Chanhee asked as Youngkyun was getting up. The younger stayed sitting, not having any energy to get up. He knew he should’ve had some more Red Bull on top of NyQuil and DayQuil but Youngkyun and Seokwoo just <em>had</em> to pry the can out of the boy’s hands.

“Did you mean individual ones?” Youngkyun raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, shut up, you know what I mean. Stop thinking that I can Korean every day,” Chanhee pouted and crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re lucky I can even put together a sentence with me being on so much medicine.”

“All of us told you at least nineteen times to sit this one out and that we could reschedule, you were the one that said we should go. You’re the lucky one that we didn’t tie you to the headrest of the bed,” Youngkyun sighed. He had a good point. Chanhee was the one that continuously kept saying that he was feeling well enough to film a video and that he’d go out and film one alone if they weren’t going to come along. And Youngkyun & Co knew better than to doubt Chanhee on matters like these.

“Listen, we’ve been over this - I don’t care what kind of bondage you’re into, but don’t try to drag me into this. And I’m taken, by the way, so it’s time to pursue some other people in your life,” the boy said, very obviously and aggressively pointing his head at Taeyang, who seemed pretty amused by the conversation.

“Never knew you were into that, Kyun,” Taeyang hummed teasingly. “Every day I learn something new…”

“No!” Youngkyun seemed to pale at least five shades lighter. “I didn’t mean it like that- I-” he struggled to formulate his correct denial sentence.

“Oh, really? That’s a pity,” Taeyang snickered.

“Oh, Christ,” Chanhee shook his head, as if that’d make the words leave his mind. “I hate you all. Where are we going next? I don’t want to listen to either of you,” Chanhee said before Youngkyun could manage to utter a reply.

“I said <em>nothing</em>!” Youngkyun protested but he was rightfully ignored. Chanhee walked past him in the direction of the backstage without even waiting for what the older had to say and offer.

Chanhee could hear a long sigh, probably followed by Youngkyun pinching the bridge of his nose, and felt his hand being taken. Chanhee looked at the older and raised an eyebrow - Youngkyun and him were close and they did a lot of skinship but they didn’t hold hands a lot, especially not on camera.

“I know you too well, you’ll get lost on your way to wherever the fuck you’re trying to go,” Youngkyun explained. One thing Chanhee couldn’t stand was someone doubting his abilities. Even if the doubts were valid and factual. For example, now. Chanhee knew he’d get lost anywhere he’d go but the sheer fact that Youngkyun doubted him made him make a… decision that no one was surprised he made but they sure were disappointed.

Chanhee took off on a run. Chanhee did not know where he was running to. Chanhee was lost.

Chanhee did not excel at intelligence and everyone around him and their cousin’s hamster knew that. The boy regretted his decisions often and now was one of those times because he realised immediately as he stopped that he had no idea how to get back or where he was. He checked his pockets for his phone but he had left it with Youngkyun.

Great.

Chanhee had the short-time memory of… himself. And that meant he wouldn’t be able to find a way back unless he suddenly came off his RedQuil induced high. Which was probably going to end only after he’s had a twelve hour night’s sleep or, perhaps, a festive coma while he was at it.

Chanhee was also incredibly stubborn, which meant that calling for help was not an option in this case. Not that he was capable of that with his sore throat and the possibility that’d make his voice a mere whisper. He had a Go-Pro attached to his chest so this wouldn’t just be lost footage, therefore the boy, in one way, only did a favour to the channel and everyone who profited off of it.

“Even though it might seem like I don't, I definitely <em>do</em> know where I am and what I’m doing,” he explained to the audience that’d later see the video and bombard it with well-meaning comments of <em>’chanhee is a dumbass’</em> and <em>’chanhee ran away just as fast as his brain cells’</em>. “You should not doubt my cognitive abilities.”

The boy turned on his flashlight to lighten up the room he was in. He guessed it was meant for both the staff and a place to put old stage decorations in. The room had a pair of dusty sofas in it, some cupboards and a coffee table, as well as some mannequins and vanity mirrors which had the light bulbs beaten out.

Chanhee walked forward a bit which made his head spin. The boy had to grab the wall to keep his balance but, as he was holding his flashlight with that hand, it fell down and turned off, leaving the boy soaked in darkness. He could hear the flashlight roll farther and farther away and then eventually stopping.

“Well, that’s quite the predicament. I’d go as far to call it a whole predinkydoink,” the boy sighed and straightened his back, no longer needing to hold on to the wall. “Hey, light man person ghost, if you’re real, can you <em>please</em> turn on the light? I’d really appreciate it,” Chanhee said. Even in critical situations like these, Chanhee always thought of the comedic value for the audience. Given, he wasn’t too good at thinking but… it was the thought that… nevermind.

The boy could leave the room but for that, too, there was a predicament. He had no idea where the door was. And he couldn’t just go around touching the wall because he didn’t fancy the idea of jamming his hand into a spider web that most definitely still had live spiders in it. Chanhee was a big fan of spiderman but he wasn’t ready for the responsibility of becoming him, especially while being on the amount of RedQuil that he had consumed. That’d really make him a shit superhero.

Chanhee moved and in a few seconds he could feel the sofa in front of him. He yawned loudly, probably alarming Youngkyun and making him think that there were ghosts talking to him. Which there weren’t because ghosts don’t exist. The boy sacrificed his jeans and sat down on the layer of dust, also known as a sofa, and leaned his head against the headrest. Surprisingly comfortable.

The boy would’ve fallen asleep if it wasn’t for the bright light coming from somewhere off to the side of him.

“Wait,” Chanhee said out loud. And didn’t continue because he was just like that.

If he had continued, though, he would definitely have uttered the question of <em>’where the fuck is that light coming from?’. Because that really was a good question, since his flashlight had fallen and turned off and the room was completely dark. But now it was <em>too</em> bright seemingly out of nothing.

Chanhee turned his head to the right and saw that the lights on the vanity mirror were on. Even if they physically couldn’t be, they were <em>broken</em>, Chanhee had noticed that the first thing he entered. That was peculiar, to say the least. But he knew that it all had a very simple explanation - RedBull with NyQuil and DayQuil, which made him both sleepy and most likely very prone to hallucinations.

Chanhee was an idiot but he wasn’t stupid so he took the opportunity of his brain suddenly remembering the layout of the room in vivid detail and making him <em>see</em> it and bailed on it. Chanhee had never walked out of a room faster. It actually made him out of breath. And dizzy again. He really needed to have a lie down.

The boy almost decided to have the lie down on the floor right there but he heard Youngkyun calling out Chanhee’s name, so he realised that it might not be a great look for him to, y’know, be lying down on the floor, unconscious upon being discovered.

“I’m here,” Chanhee said as loud as he could. Which wasn’t very loud because his throat was putting up quite the fight. The boy quickened his pace to the general area of where he had heard Youngkyun’s voice and in no time he faceplanted into the older’s chest.

“You absolute dumbass, where were you? We’ve been looking for you for ages,” Youngkyun sighed and pulled the boy into a tight hug. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I got stuck in a room for a bit because my flashlight fell and turned off and I’m pretty sure I need a nap now because I hallucinated that the lights turned on and yikes, shit’s not fun. So I really, really need a nap right about now,” Chanhee explained, leaning onto Youngkyun with most of his weight and already closing his eyes.

“Fuck, okay, let’s get you to the car. Sit down for a second, I’ll get your flashlight, alright? And then we can go to the car and you can have all the naps in the world. Which room were you in?” he asked, checking the boy’s temperature and carefully leading him to a bench he could sit on.

“That one,” the boy pointed at the door of the room he had been on. There was no light coming from the bottom of the door, as expected. “The flashlight rolled behind something I think, it’s turned off so it’s hard to see, so good luck,” Chanhee mumbled, barely able to focus on what he was saying.

“I’ll be right back, sweetheart, just wait for me for a little,” Youngkyun had that calming aura around him again that made Chanhee <em>safe</em> and <em>peaceful</em>. The boy didn’t know how Youngkyun did it but in these situations, the older always had that sort of vibe around him. Chanhee didn’t complain.

And while Chanhee wasn’t complaining, he had somehow come to the conclusion that being in a lying down position on the bench was much more comfortable than having to keep his body up. Sure, he didn’t have where to put his legs but that was the least of his problems. The boy put his hands under his cheek to somewhat simulate a pillow and closed his eyes.

Exhaustion took over the boy, he couldn’t move or open his eyes anymore. Chanhee wanted nothing more than to sleep everything off and maybe sleep some extra hours on top of the twenty-four he was definitely going to sleep through. Even breathing took too much effort at that moment but the urge to sleep was overwhelming and he couldn’t be bothered to actually have to move his diaphragm up and down. Sure he was going to do it either way, but it really wasn’t because he enjoyed it at that moment.

Chanhee heard a voice saying something that he was far too tired to process, so he just grunted something in response, and heard a quiet sigh. Soon after he was scooped up in someone’s arms - Chanhee’s guess was that it was Youngkyun but it might as well have been a maniacal murderer, the boy had no way of knowing and he didn’t really care either. As long as he could have a good night’s sleep.

After that, Chanhee turned his consciousness off for good for the next thirty hours at the very least. The boy trusted that Youngkyun wouldn’t drop him while on the way to the car or do anything else that could be equally as bad.


	13. Chapter 13

“I’m not sick anymore!” Chanhee insisted while getting tightly tucked into a blanket burrito by Youngkyun. “I haven’t had a single coughing fit in a day or so and my nose is barely even running anymore,” Chanhee jinxed it. Immediately as he said that he wasn’t coughing anymore, he felt his throat itching. Chanhee was way too stubborn to cough though, so he kept it in.

“We can talk when your nose _isn’t_ running anymore. You fell asleep on a bench while filming like two days ago, you cannot be completely healthy yet,” Youngkyun explained and sighed deeply. “Just stay in bed for one more day. Where do you want to go so much anyway? We can watch Netflix and order some food, just say the word.”

“Can you at least open the window? I want some fresh air,” Chanhee crossed his arms over his chest to show how grumpy he was. It looked more cute than _grumpy_, though.

“Of course, love,” Youngkyun opened the window. “Do you want anything from the kitchen?”

“Nah, come here, let’s watch something,” Chanhee sighed and succumbed to Youngkyun. The boy took his laptop and opened it as the older was getting comfy next to him. The last thing he had looked at popped up on the screen, signalling the computer was on. It was some article about angels that he had opened after having the great idea of going on a bible website and now the only thing he was getting was ads about angels and eternal damnation.

After that Chanhee decided that _’fuck it_, maybe they should make a video that was a stay-at-home one about angels. The boy didn’t believe in angels, as he didn’t in every other fake supernatural being, but it seemed fun. They wouldn’t have to freeze their asses off and they could get enough sleep, so an episode like that would be an overall win in Chanhee’s book.

“What’s that?” Youngkyun asked, seeing the article. “Do you believe in angels now?” he laughed but it still sounded like he was genuinely interested in what the answer was.

“You wish,” Chanhee scoffed, almost offended that Youngkyun could believe that Chanhee would ever believe in religious affairs. “I was just thinking that we could do an episode about the holy feathery guys from home, I don’t have any ideas about where to go for the next one and I doubt you do either, so, y’know… _angels_.”

“That seems kind of boring, though. We could do an episode about aliens and both be sceptical for once or do an episode about all the theories that there are about the end of the world, or the concept of demons and ghosts, and ghouls, and zombies and stuff,” Youngkyun talked as fast as a rapper would.

“It’s not more boring than everything we’ve already done, I found some interesting information, actually. Why do you so badly not want to do an episode about angels?” Chanhee furrowed his brows and tilted his head slightly.

“It’s not that I don’t want to do this episode, I just don’t think it’s going to be interesting enough for our audience. We can do it if you want to, of course, but, y’know, I wouldn’t waste my time, looking into it,” Youngkyun shrugged and took the computer from Chanhee. “What do you want to watch?” he changed the subject.

“The audience only wants to see my pretty face, they don’t care about the content. They’re enchanted by my beauty,” Chanhee cupped his cheeks and winked at Youngkyun, letting out a small chuckle.

“Chanhee, dear, have you seen yourself in a mirror lately?” Youngkyun raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think anyone would watch us just for you. If anything, they’d do it for me. I’m the hot one here.”

“Far from it, I’m the one running a fever here, aren’t I?” Chanhee smirked. He took the computer away from Youngkyun, suddenly not feeling like watching anything. The boy used the opportunity when Youngkyun’s lap was empty and climbed in it, facing Youngkyun.

“So are you finally admitting that you’re sick?” Youngkyun shot back, catching Chanhee’s mistake.

“In no way, shape or form am I saying that,” Chanhee shook his head. “What I _am_ saying, though, is that I’m hotter than you and that’s a proven fact because I have a boyfriend and you don’t,” the boy poked a finger in Youngkyun’s chest.

“You’re unbearable,” the older sighed. “You say you’re an adult and then do the most childish things.”

“How come you still love me nonetheless?” Chanhee blinked innocently, as if he hadn’t just tried to poke fun of Youngkyun for being boyfriend-less. “I don’t think you actually think what you said about me is true.”

“I think what I said is true but that’s exactly the reason why I’m here with you - I can’t let you put plastic in the metal in the microwave and die, that’s why we’re friends,” Youngkyun smiled.

“You have very interesting motivations for becoming friends with someone,” Chanhee laughed. “Also, y’know, I could help you get a boyfriend that you so desperately crave,” he winked and got off Youngkyun’s lap.

“I don’t _crave_ anything. I don’t want a boyfriend, nor do I need one,” Youngkyun tried not to sound defensive but failed miserably, as with most things. “Who would I even be with?” he asked, as if the answer wasn’t already painfully obvious.

“Youngkyun, remind me, please, the reason why I haven’t bashed your head in yet?” Chanhee sighed with a pained expression on his face. “You very clearly know that you’re _in love_ with Taeyang and he feels the same. In my opinion, you should stop being a pussy and ask him out.”

“I’m not being a pussy. Even if I would like him that way, which I do not, I wouldn’t ask him because he doesn’t feel the same way and I don’t think I’m ready for a relationship yet anyway,” Youngkyun crossed his arms on his chest, making himself look even more defensive than before.

“Okay, the first part of what you said is a complete lie, you know you both like each other and everyone knows that, even you, being the dumbass you are. I can get you not being ready for a relationship but don’t try to lie to me about not liking Taeyang because we both know that’s not true,” Chanhee said. They both had been friends for way too long to not know when the other one was lying and Chanhee definitely knew that Youngkyun was lying right now.

“I’m not- fine, yes, I like him. But that’s it, I’m just… not ready for a relationship, I don’t think I will be any time soon, to be honest,” the smile that had been on Youngkyun’s face before faded.

“Do you want to talk it through?” Chanhee asked. He might be playful and joke around too much sometimes but the boy always knew when the situation was serious. Youngkyun seemed to be genuinely upset by the turn of events. A feeling of guilt washed over the boy - if it wasn’t for him being pushy on this subject, they wouldn’t be in this situation right now.

“There’s nothing to really talk through. It’s just that I don’t think I’m ready or… capable of an actual, like, non-platonic relationship,” Youngkyun said with a quiet sigh at the end. “I don’t think I’d ever let myself be in one either.”

“I think you’re more than capable of a romantic relationship, after all - you do like Taeyang, I’ve seen the look of adoration in your eyes when you look at him. You remind me… of myself, actually. God, back before Seokwoo and I were together, I was basically like you. But hey - look where I am now!” Chanhee smiled shortly. “Don’t take this the wrong way, though, I’m not pushing you toward a relationship if you do not want one.”

“Yeah, I guess saying I wasn’t capable of one was kind of wrong. But I _can’t_ be in a relationship. It’s just… I can’t,” Youngkyun seemed disappointed.

“Why not? What’s holding you back, bub?” Chanhee furrowed his brows. “Once you’re ready for it and want to be in one, there’s nothing and no one that can keep you from being in a loving relationship with the person you care about most,” the boy took Youngkyun’s hand into his.

“I… I can’t explain, Chanhee. I’d love to but I can’t. Let’s leave it at that, okay? I don’t like talking about it,” Youngkyun squeezed Chanhee’s hand.

“I’m not going to push you to talk about it but I hope you know that you can. Whenever and about whatever you want, okay?” Chanhee hugged the older tightly. Usually, Youngkyun was the one hugging Chanhee to comfort the younger but Chanhee felt like it was his duty to provide his friend with a hug that would last a good minute or five.

Chanhee knew how shitty it was to make someone talk about issues that they absolutely didn’t want to talk about so he wasn’t about to, he knew that Youngkyun would also respect his wishes. It was quite interesting actually, the boys only knew each other for about three or four years but they already were the closest of friends. Platonic soulmates, if something like that existed.

They understood each other better than anyone. Sometimes they even communicated without words better than with. This was one of those cases. Neither Chanhee nor Youngkyun had to say something during the hug, that alone said more than any amount of sentences that could be spoken.

“I love you loads,” Youngkyun whispered in the crook of Chanhee’s neck. Just barely audible.

“I love you, too,” Chanhee murmured.

They said that to each other quite often but always in a joking manner. Times they actually said it seriously to each other weren’t as many but it was just a thing they both knew without it being said. Both of them were completely sure in their friendship.

When Chanhee was younger, he had never expected he’d have a friend like that and he had even accepted that as a fact but now that he had Youngkyun, the boy couldn’t imagine his life without him. And for some reason, Chanhee was completely sure that Youngkyun felt the same.

“Should we watch some ‘Good Place’?” after a little while Youngkyun asked, seemingly gotten over the conversation they had had. “We haven’t binged that in a while.”

“That sounds great,” Chanhee smiled, happy to see that his friend was back to his usual self.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhhhhhhhhh i am. very sorry for leaving for half a year but i had no time nor inspiration and i only picked up writing yesterday again so yes hello i am back and hopefully to stay!! my twitter is @hwiyoungyang on which i am not active but i'll try to be !!


	14. Chapter 14

“I can’t believe this,” Youngkyun pinched the bridge of his nose. “You wanted to do a stay-at-home episode because you’re sick. Yet now you’re saying you want to do the kindergarten episode instead? The kindergarten isn’t going to go anywhere. Why rush? You should get healthy first.”

“Who said I’m not healthy?” Chanhee said and almost on cue had a coughing fit. Nothing like a good old cough to prove that a person is cured of a cold. “I did that on purpose, just so you know,” he said.

“That just now. _That_ said that you’re far from healthy,” Youngkyun crossed his arms on his chest.

“Well, that’s not a reliable source. We’re going to do the kindergarten episode today. I already called the woman who runs that place anyway, it’d be just plain out rude to suddenly cancel. We can’t be rude, can we?” Chanhee looked at Youngkyun, using his best puppy eyes. “You’re the one who preaches about being respectful and polite, aren’t you?”

“I… yeah, I preach about being polite but I also preach about caring about yourself, which includes not being reckless when you’re _sick_,” the older pointed out. “And one of those things is more important than the other to me.”

“Well, not to me! We’re going, I’m not taking no for an answer,” Chanhee raised an eyebrow as if challenging Youngkyun to object.

“Hey, guys! We’re here!” saved by the bell. The bell being Seokwoo, of course.

“Coming!” Chanhee yelled back and stuck his tongue out at Youngkyun before leaving to greet his boyfriend.

“Hey, missed you,” Seokwoo said, seeing Chanhee. He pulled the boy into a tight hug and kissed him shortly. Chanhee pouted because in his not at all humble opinion the kiss should’ve been way longer.

“Missed you, too,” he replied and got on his tip-toes to kiss his boyfriend again. Seokwoo still had to lean down a bit.

“You two are absolutely gross,” Taeyang mumbled, moving past them to go see Youngkyun, _to be exactly as gross as Seokwoo and Chanhee were_. 

“Too much PDA, I guess,” Seokwoo chuckled. He took the boy’s hand and went to see Youngkyun. “Hey, Kyun!” the man smiled widely with that smile only he had. Chanhee couldn’t help but smile again.

“Hey, Woo. Wanna help me convince Chanhee that we should do a stay-at-home episode instead of going to a definitely haunted kindergarten which will most likely be dark and cold and make Chanhee even sicker than he already is?” Youngkyun still had hope in his eyes. How naive of him. It’s not like Chanhee hadn’t thought about that already and made sure Seokwoo would be on his side.

“You know how hard it is to convince Chanhee of something. I say we go, it’s not like he’s gonna die from doing an episode. Besides, Chanhee promised me he’d wear something very, very warm and have a full thermos of tea with him and knowing that this is Chanhee who I negotiated with, I consider this a huge victory,” Seokwoo sighed. “I don’t want him to go either but I’ll take that over arguing any day.”

“Fine, but a multitude of jumpers and tea shall be present,” Youngkyun gave up. “And if I see that Chanhee starts having a fever or anything like that, we’re going home, I don’t care about the video,” he made up some of his terms to the deal.

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Chanhee rolled his eyes. “Let’s go make some tea,” this time Chanhee led Seokwoo to the kitchen.

***

“Hello, dear viewers! We’re here at the old Sunrise Kindergarten for Gifted Children and I’m already feeling very bad about this place,” Youngkyun did the intro this time.

“You feel bad about every place we visit. I think it’s fine, pretty well-kept. God, I remember that shitty hotel we visited the other day, that one was horrible,” Chanhee shook his head in disapproval.

“I feel especially bad about this place. I really don’t like it. I think my head hurts. Can we sit in the car for a bit? Return later maybe?” Youngkyun asked. He sounded very scared and he hadn’t even been inside. They were standing at the front door and hadn’t had the chance to open it yet.

“Kyun, stop being a pussy, let’s just go in, do the video and go home! This place is no more or less haunted than all the other ones we’ve been to, which means that it’s not haunted at all. Don’t worry that much, you big baby,” Chanhee chuckled. He opened the door and was immediately met with a strange, still cold. It was cold outside, too, but the cold inside was… _different_. It was _strange_. Chanhee was just probably starting to get a fever again.

“Give me your hand,” Youngkyun ordered.

“You really are a pussy, aren’t you?” Chanhee started laughing but gave Youngkyun his hand. “Tell me about this place, I wanna hear all about it. It’s the nicest location we’ve been to in a while.”

“I mean, that dude’s - Haechan’s - place was pretty nice,” Youngkyun murmured. “And this place is in no way nice. I’m hating it. There’s a very, very bad presence here. I hate it a lot.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I did not like Haechan or his place at all,” Chanhee squinted at Youngkyun. “And there’s a bad presence everywhere we go as much as I’ve heard from you. Now tell me, why is this place so bad and why does it creep you out so bad?”

“It used to be a kindergarten until fairly recently, it was closed in 1938,” Youngkyun started.

“Okay, sorry to interrupt but how the fuck is 1938 recent?” Chanhee furrowed his brows in confusion. Yeah, he knew that Youngkyun had a warped sense of time but it had never been this bad. “That’s like… a lot of years ago. I can’t do the math but that’s far from recent.”

“That’s only eighty-two years ago, that’s not that… yeah, I guess you’re right. It sounded like less in my mind,” Youngkyun brushed it off. “Anyway, the kindergarten was open only for seven years when it just went bankrupt because no parent wanted to let their child spend their days here.

“This right here,” Youngkyun opened a door on his right, “is the classroom slash playroom slash just a room for the eldest children here. This is where the first _bad thing_ happened.”

“Well, don’t keep us waiting, what was it?” Chanhee let his impatient qualities show.

“The date is March 28, 1921. A day like every other. Parents dropped their kids off at the kindergarten. Everything was going just fine until naptime. The kids changed into their pyjamas and got in their beds, waiting for a bedtime story but what they got instead was an order to go to sleep immediately or they’d be put to sleep by force.

“The other nanny that was in the room protested to that, of course, because that’s not how they operate. They always told a bedtime story to the kids - whether it was a fairytale about Snowwhite or Cinderella or just about anything, so they’d have good dreams. They never just flat-out threatened the kids into sleeping.

“But the first nanny didn’t reply to her but instead just knocked her out. Of course, the children started crying and/or screaming but she said that she’d do something bad to the kids if they were loud. Thankfully, while she had her back on some of the beds, one girl managed to escape and call the security that they so conveniently had because this was a kindergarten for the rich and they detained her - with trouble though, she was said to be inhumanely strong.

“But she wasn’t detained in time because she killed two kids before they got there. One was smothered with a pillow and the other thrown out of the window. Witnesses said that she just picked up the kid with one hand and threw him,” Youngkyun said with a concerned facial expression all through it. He seemed genuinely worried. “Theory is that she got possessed by a demon here.”

“That’s certainly… no fun,” it was a lot to take in, even for someone that didn’t believe in all supernatural things. That was a very grim story and if it was only the first one… Chanhee wasn’t too excited to hear the others if they were going to be this sad. Something about children… just hit the wrong nerves, especially when it’s told so sadly. “Hey, lady, you fucking sucked for doing that to the kids.”

“Let’s try to communicate with the demon,” Youngkyun said, taking out the spirit box. Chanhee sighed but nodded. The older turned it on and flinched from the noise. “Our names are Chanhee and Youngkyun, can you say any of them back to us?”

As expected, it was only white noise.

“What kind of a person does one have to be to throw a child out of a window?” Chanhee wondered out loud.

_“It wasn’t her,”_ the spirit box spoke, a bit incoherently but still understandably. But anything can sound as words if you think of it long enough, that’s how human brains work.

“So who was it then?” Chanhee entertained the idea that the box actually said what he thought it said. He had to, even if he didn’t believe in it. The price of entertaining the internet was high.

_“It was me,”_ it spoke again and continued with the white noise. Youngkyun turned the device off immediately, probably feeling too spooked to continue listening to the snippets of radio.

“That was… creepy,” Youngkyun shuddered. “Let’s go to the next room? I want to leave here as early as possible.

“Sure,” Chanhee agreed. “Lead the way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello friends, how is quarantine treating you? i am dying but also being somewhat productive with chapters, i even have some written ahead hehe  
anygay, talk to me on twt @hwiyoungyang or curiouscat @markhyuckstea !!


	15. Chapter 15

“Okay, so now we’re in the basement,” Youngkyun stated the obvious. “Not to be me but his place has a better vibe than everything on the upper floors.”

“Yeah, rats and roaches really give me a great vibe,” Chanhee looked under his feet so he could avoid all the bugs he was sure he’d see. “I dislike basements, especially ones like this, why are you making me be here?”

“Well, dear Chanhee, this, too, is a murder site and there’s some impressive ghostly activity here. And that’s the whole point of the videos we film if you haven’t noticed yet,” Youngkyun reminded. He cleared his throat to get back into the talking spirit and continued. “And as to why you’re here, well do I have a story for you…

“In 1927, a pair of siblings went missing. They were found here, in the basement, after two weeks. Dead. Both of them had bite marks all over them but none of them were of each others’, plus the coroner said they were given post-mortem. The theory is that some kids that they had had an argument with locked them in down there and then just… forgot about them and then visited again after a while-”

“Ah, yes, if I find a dead person, I would totally start biting them as well. What else do you do with a corpse? Tell the authorities? Don’t be silly, just eat them to get rid of the evidence!” Chanhee did finger guns at the camera. His reactions to gross things were not quite polished, he always tried hiding his true emotions with humour and so far it was working.

“Yeah, I found it weird, too, that a kid would start biting dead bodies but, y’know, _kids_,” Youngkyun shivered as if the thought of kids scared him more than the concept of ghosts that he so believed in. Finally, something that Chanhee could agree with - children were definitely the scariest things known to man.

“Normal kid stuff, sure,” Chanhee raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “What exactly is the ghostly activity here? The siblings or the dead rats?”

“Actually a bit of everything. People say they feel their hands being taken and squeezed and a feeling of terror washing over them. There have been rats violently killed here as well, like blood everywhere and even drawings done with it, which is… not what I’d call fun!” Youngkyun said, all while maintaining a certain grimace that did not scream ‘ah yes i am completely satisfied with the turn of events that led me to be here in this basement in the middle of the night’.

While Chanhee was preparing a snarky remark to shoot back with, a noise came from around a corner. It sounded like… a rat. Of course, in a normal situation, Chanhee would’ve just run away because he did not want to be bitten by a rat but obviously they had to investigate.

Youngkyun went first as he always did even though he was the one who was most scared. They indeed saw a rat. It didn’t look murdered, though, it was squealing as if it was scared and kept looking somewhere over their shoulders and then had a run for it.

“We gotta get out of here,” Youngkyun paled a few tones. He took Chanhee’s hand and had a run for it just like the aforementioned rat. What were they if not humanoid rats, to be fair.

“Youngkyun, that’s what rats do, they squeal, don’t worry,” Chanhee laughed at Youngkyun’s paranoia but ran along with him.

Chanhee’s fever must’ve been running high because the boy felt one of his hands feeling cold. If he was Youngkyun, he would’ve definitely said that it was one of the _ghost children_ but the boy knew better than that. It did feel like something was holding him back, though. Chanhee let that slide as his imagination being hyperactive in the dark of the basement.

“Yeah, well, I don’t think so and I didn’t want to be there and you didn’t either, and now we’re out of there,” Youngkyun quickly said. Taeyang, who was on the top of the staircase already, having been filming them from the front, looked at the boys with a judging look as if to make them feel guilty for making Taeyang run with the equipment.

The door behind them slammed with a loud crash, it sounded like something definitely broke from the hit.

“Before you say it’s the wind, there is no fucking wind here so it couldn’t have slammed that way,” Youngkyun had a worried look on his face. Exactly the look that made Chanhee think of the older as a huge scaredy-cat that believes in all of the dumb, unrealistic supernatural things. “I hate it here.”

“I bet the ghosts hate it more and that’s why they’re angry and want to eat your brains. They’ll be so disappointed to learn that you aren’t equipped with any,” Chanhee sighed and wiped away a fake tear on behalf of the brain-eating ghosts.

“Ghosts don’t eat brains and I bet they do hate being here, you’re absolutely right. Imagine being stuck in the place where you died for eternity. That’s horrible,” Youngkyun said. “Let’s get away from the basement, shall we?”

“Whatever you say, chief,” Chanhee shrugged.

“Okay, so now we’re on our way to the most haunted room in the building. It’s the teacher’s lounge where the last murders happened. These are the murders that finally got this kindergarten to close after all the tragedy that had been harbouring here,” Youngkyun began telling. “After all the children are gone on Tuesdays they used to have regular teacher meetings to discuss their teaching techniques and achievements and whatnot. Except this time it didn’t go so well as it usually did - there was a knife on the table, which they used for cutting the bread and cake they had gotten for the meeting as they always did, and with that very knife one of the nannies singlehandedly killed ten others. The police found her, sitting at the table. All the bodies had teeth marks on them but they weren’t hers.”

“Does that demon have a fucking biting kink or what?” Chanhee furrowed his brows. “Like, really, what the fuck?”

“Demons don’t really have personalities that you can explain. Starting from going against God to, well... this,” Youngkyun murmured. “We, and especially you, shouldn’t insult the demon, though. It’s not safe,” he once again had a worried look on his face.

Of course, Chanhee took that as a challenge. He took everything as a challenge. Youngkyun should’ve known better by now than to say things like that to Chanhee.

“Well, I think that the demon should hear what people really think of it. I think that the demon was being a huge fucking moron, going around, possessing and killing people. That’s just heartless. You have to be a huge moron to do that. And why a kindergarten? Why kids?” Chanhee started getting heated, he loved going against everything Youngkyun said.

“Chanhee, seriously, don’t,” Youngkyun stepped closer. “It’s not a joke, you don’t know what you’re playing with right now.”

“I’m just letting the demon that it should go back to hell where it belongs,” Chanhee said, blinking innocently. “What’s wrong with telling the truth? That demon fell from Heaven and it’s not like it was supposed to be on Earth, it should be in Hell, where it absolutely belongs. There’s a reason it was cast out of Heaven by the lord almighty, no?” Chanhee laughed, leaving a slight smirk on his face.

“Let’s go,” Youngkyun just mumbled and took Chanhee’s hand.

“Nothing happened, I’m still here and not possessed as far as I know!” Chanhee stubbornly said and took his hand out of Youngkyun’s. “No teeth marks or anything!”

As soon as Chanhee said that, white noise started playing. At first, neither of them quite got where it was coming from but then it clicked - the spirit box. It must’ve turned on.

_ ”Leave or suffer.” _

Youngkyun immediately turned the device off.

“Oh, I’m staying, I like it here,” Chanhee crossed his arms on his chest. “You’re the one that can leave. Go to Hell or something,” the boy challenged the air.

“Chanhee, let’s go, we have the video anyway,” Youngkyun was practically begging at this point. “Don’t try to provoke powers greater than you.”

“There is no greater power than me. Not in this room, not anywhere. _I_ am the greatest power available to mankind,” he started his speech. “If a demon wanted to hurt me, it would’ve done so by now. But, as you see, that hasn’t happened, so… surprise! Demons don’t even fucking exist and if they do, they’re weak,” Chanhee was on the verge of breaking out in a fit of laughter.

And he would have if he didn’t feel so dizzy.

Wait, since when was Chanhee dizzy?

Didn’t really matter, as the next moment all he felt was a strong push in his chest area and he lost his balance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hewwo it's 4 am and i just finished a chapter so i thought i should post one uwu as always, talk to me on twt: hwiyoungyang and ask questions on curiouscat: markhyuckstea !! uwu


	16. Chapter 16

Chanhee never liked waking up but this morning it was especially hard. If it even was morning. At this point, Chanhee could’ve woken in the timeline of another universe and he would be neither surprised nor disappointed with how his life was going.

Last he remembered, he was at the supposedly haunted kindergarten but now he was back home in his bed. Had he dreamt all of that? That would explain the things he had experienced. Chanhee had a very active imagination after all, especially with how Youngkyun was so sure that ghosts existed and everything was proof of it to him.

The boy got up, his head still heavy, and immediately reached his hand out to the wall for balance. Getting up quickly sometimes led him to extreme dizziness, which the boy didn't enjoy too much.

He quietly left the room as to not wake up Youngkyun who was probably sound asleep, seeing as to how it seemed to be the middle of the night, and set his course to the kitchen to get some tea to help him sleep again.

Chanhee was very surprised to see _everyone_ in his kitchen. While the boy was trying to be quiet and get to the kitchen silently to not wake Youngkyun up, Taeyang, Seokwoo and Youngkyun were very much awake and in his kitchen, drinking coffee. All of them had at least once told Chanhee to not drink coffee at night, yet here they were doing just that. A bunch of hypocrites.

“It’s the middle of the night, what are you doing here?” Chanhee asked in very apparent confusion.

“We were worried about you and couldn’t quite fall asleep yet,” Seokwoo had a concerned look on his face. The older approached Chanhee and put his hand on the boy’s forehead to check his temperature.

“Why would you be worried about me?” Chanhee tilted his head to one side. With that movement, he felt a headache creeping upon him. The light coming from the ceiling was too bright for him to handle at the given moment so he squinted a little.

“You don’t remember?” Youngkyun furrowed his brows. “We were filming and you fainted, sweetheart,” he explained. “I thought you said the fainting spell was a thing of the past, something that happened when you were a kid…”

“Oh, so we did film an episode and it wasn’t just some kind of a fever dream?” Chanhee asked. He received a nod from everyone in the room. “Great. Yeah, I thought that didn’t happen to me anymore. It hadn’t in a long time but I guess it has come back for a visit. Did I hit my head when I fell? It hurts,” the younger pouted and hid his head in his boyfriend’s chest.

“You didn’t, I think it’s just because you fainted just in general. Maybe you’re a bit dehydrated, I’ll make you some tea, hon,” Youngkyun said, putting on the kettle. “I’ll get you some Ibuprofen as well.”

“How are you feeling? Excluding the headache,” Taeyang asked.

“Could be worse. I was a bit dizzy at first but now it’s just a headache. I’ll just sleep it off later, though, so it’s fine,” Chanhee shrugged. He was disappointed in his body for letting him faint like that again. He thought it was over and that he wouldn’t have to worry about just suddenly falling unconscious out of nowhere.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Taeyang inquired.

“We were filming the episode, I was talking shit to the demon and then I just fainted, and now we’re here,” Chanhee said.

“You woke up a few seconds after you fainted but then went to sleep and told Youngkyun he would have no choice but to carry you to the car because he deserves it,” Taeyang chuckled. That did sound like something Chanhee would say to Youngkyun.

“Yeah, no, I can’t remember that but I assume I could’ve done that,” Chanhee smiled. The boy accepted the tea that Youngkyun passed him and had some.

“We’re definitely doing the next episode here, I’m not letting you go _anywhere_ until I’m sure you’re healthy. I don’t want that repeating again any time soon,” Youngkyun turned on his overprotective mode that he went in when he was concerned.

“Fine, _dad_,” Chanhee rolled his eyes.

“And don’t call me dad, that’s weird,” Youngkyun added. “And drink your tea, so you can get back to bed.”

“You’re acting like a dad,” Chanhee stuck out his tongue. “By the way, did you film an outro to the video? It must’ve not felt very complete with me, y’know, fainting in the middle of a sentence.”

“Yeah, nothing a little editing can’t solve. And you’re not doing the editing, all you’re doing for the next couple of days is just sleeping and drinking tea to make sure you’re fine,” Youngkyun set up rules.

“And what do you suppose I’m going to do while lying in bed all day? Editing isn’t even a physical activity! Let me at least move my fingers because I can and will move out otherwise,” Chanhee threatened.

“And I’ll make sure you don’t do it. You can do research for our next video while you’re on bed arrest,” Youngkyun noted. Chanhee noticed Taeyang struggling to hold in his laughter at the exchange.

“Kyunnie, you’re really talking like a dad. At this point you’ve officially passed all the tests there are to adopt Chanhee,” Taeyang laughed. “I can help you, being a single parent must be hard. Especially with a child-like Chanhee,” he tried to stay as serious as he could but was failing miserably at it.

“I’ll have you know that I’m a lovely child and Youngkyun would be lucky to be my father,” Chanhee crossed his arms over his chest. Well, to be fair, anyone would be better than Chanhee’s real dad so he wouldn’t even mind the older signing some documents to become Chanhee’s legal guardian but he seriously doubted that was possible at their current age.

“My hair would go grey on day one of having you,” Youngkyun scoffed. “You’re as far from a lovely child as there can be.”

“Disowned already,” Taeyang chuckled.

_Wouldn’t be the first time._

“If I had the responsibility of having Chanhee as my son, I would never disown him,” Youngkyun carefully chose his words. He was the only one from their friend group who knew about the boy’s real family situation. Chanhee had lied to Seokwoo about it but justified the lies with him not having to deal with that. “_But_ I would have to really consider my methods of his upbringing because I would not raise such a brat.”

“This conversation is gonna make me have grey hair, I cannot imagine Chanhee having been raised by Youngkyun,” Seokwoo finally spoke up. “Chanhee’s parents did a very good job of bringing Chanhee up and I would like that not changed, thank you very much. No Youngkyun upbringing.”

Yeah, they did a great job on Chanhee and immediately quit it after realising their son wasn’t straight.

Youngkyun shot a worried look toward Chanhee to see if the boy was doing okay during a conversation that mentioned the topic that he very well knew tended to be painful for Chanhee. The younger, thankfully, seemed to be doing fine, amused even. Or, well, that’s what he made the others believe.

After all, Chanhee was great at pretending everything was alright when it was actually as far from it as it could be. No one had to know that, though, Chanhee was great at dealing with stuff on his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me on twt: hwiyoungyang uwu  
and ask questions on my curiouscat: markhyuckstea !!


	17. Chapter 17

“Hello, dear people! My name’s Youngkyun and this blanket burrito next to me is Chanhee if anyone couldn’t recognise him,” the older started the episode. “As you can see, this episode we’re home because this time around we’re going to be talking about angels. We thought it’d be a good idea to finally do an episode which wouldn’t end up in me being on the verge of a complete breakdown.”

“_You_ thought, not we,” Chanhee corrected. The boy had tried to get things his way again but alas, no luck. He had basically been quarantined at home. Youngkyun seemed so worried that he barely even let the boy leave his room, bringing everything to and from him if he needed anything. “Anyway, this time around _I_ gathered the material for the episode so get ready for the OG mythical creatures called angels.”

“Is that really what you have to call angels?” Youngkyun sighed. Chanhee was sure that the older was already regretting his decision to not let Chanhee out for the episode.

“Yes, absolutely. Well, technically the OG mythical creature would be God but for the sake of the episode, it’s gonna be angels. Deal with it,” Chanhee stuck his tongue out. Youngkyun would have to deal with all the blasphemy this episode had to bear, it was his fault they weren’t exploring a haunted place after all.

“I don’t know why I was expecting something else from you,” the older shook his head in disappointment.

“I gave up on expecting anything from myself a long time ago,” Chanhee shrugged. “Anyway, angels. This episode is really gonna make you rethink whether you want to call your significant other an angel because I really wouldn’t. I’m gonna say it - angels are scarier than demons. That is, if either of them existed of course.”

“Demons are inherently evil, they disobeyed God and were cast out of Heaven. Angels are the good guys, how are they scary?” Youngkyun was perplexed at Chanhee’s philosophy and couldn’t let the boy say that.

“Listen to everything about them and you’ll see. If you don’t agree with me by the end of the episode, you’re just wrong and cancelled,” Chanhee said.

“I’m neither wrong nor cancelled, you just have no idea what you’re talking about,” the older sulked. He didn’t seem to enjoy the episode already.

“Okay, so an angel is generally a supernatural being found in various religions and mythologies. It doesn’t have a clear physical appearance in the Bible. Mostly they showed themselves in their human forms because their actual forms were too scary for people. When they showed up, they literally had to explicitly say ‘hey fuckers don’t be afraid i’m a god’s ambassador’ or whatever. That’s totally what the Bible says, guys, trust me,” Chanhee started telling the camera what he had found out.

“I don’t think angels would be allowed to, y’know, _swear_ if they were on a mission from God as God’s _ambassadors_,” Youngkyun murmured. Chanhee shot the older a look of confusion. It was fair of Youngkyun to interrupt and let his dislike be known since Chanhee did that every time they were filming an episode and Youngkyun was telling them what had happened in the place. Despite that, Chanhee still did not like that but he wasn’t going to bring it up.

“Well, I don’t think either but you don’t see me complaining,” Chanhee pouted. “Anyway, yes, angels are typically seen as scary in their physical appearance. There are multiple ways they have been described - one of them is them just being fire, which is fun. Another one is them being… _a spheregood guys_ of the whole supernatural realm,” he finally said, disappointed.

“If angels were supposed to be the good guys, God wouldn’t have made them so terrifying. Am I right or am I right?” Chanhee challenged 

“God’s paths are unfathomable. Maybe he did so to test humanity, in which case you would’ve absolutely failed the test on all levels,” Youngkyun shook his head. “All of God’s creations are beautiful in one way or another, denying that would be denying God’s will.”

“Fuck God’s will, angels are terrifying. But now on to slightly less terrifying things - angels have a multitude of abilities. Not only they can see, feel and hear a lot more than humans but they can also feel energies, whatever those are these days,” Chanhee said. “As they have wings, they can also travel freely from Heaven to Earth. You’d think that if Heaven was so great, they would have no need to come down to Earth,” Chanhee huffed.

“They do have missions on Earth from God, so, y’know, they gotta,” Youngkyun once again defended the angel race. _Which wasn’t even real in the first place._

“_Anyway_, angels are more intelligent, almost omniscient, stronger and faster than humans could even wish to be. It’s written here that they’re more emotional, too, which, for one, is fucking hilarious to me,” Chanhee giggled. “I say ‘fuck you’ to an angel and they start fucking weeping.”

“I’m pretty sure that one’s not true. Emotions are kind of seen as an… opposite of strength, so they’d be less emotional, in my opinion,” Youngkyun shared his beliefs, completely ignoring Chanhee’s joke, which was just plain old rude. Chanhee would definitely have a stern talk with Youngkyun after they finished filming.

Chanhee ground his teeth and continued.

“Angels, being superior beings to humans, cannot be harmed by us. They’re also stronger than demons because demons no longer possess the supernatural grace from God since they were cast out of Heaven. And again, if Heaven was such a great place, would demons really do something to disappoint God so much that they get cast out? That just seems weird to me,” Chanhee raised his brows as if he had made a very strong argument on behalf of either Heaven not being great or supernatural beings not existing. No one really knew.

“Heaven is a great place, there are just rebellious ones that don’t respect God and His rules. It’s not surprising, you see that in us, humans, too,” Youngkyun shrugged, arguing against what Chanhee said.

“Yeah, but humans don’t really get the same supposed ‘Heaven’ treatment. If Heaven was better than Earth, no one would’ve wanted to go against God and His mighty rules,” Chanhee made a point. He wanted to win this argument and in his mind, he already had because he was a few steps ahead of Youngkyun - one of those steps being that he knew that angels didn’t exist in the first place.

“Sure,” Youngkyun said, not wanting to continue the debate.

“Let’s end the episode with ways to know if you’ve been in the presence of angels,” Chanhee said, pulling up a list in his notes. “Number one, finding a feather. Okay, let me stop myself there. Do angels fucking shed feathers like animals shed fur? Is that it?”

“I think it’s more like if the angel wanted you to know that it’s looking over you and stuff, rather than _shedding feathers_.”

“Number two is flashes of light. Three is rainbows - angels said gay rights! Some others are direct messages, tingling sensations, goosebumps or chills, the feeling of being touched, symbols and images in clouds, scents, and more,” Chanhee listed the things he read, ignoring Youngkyun’s remark.

“Well, if we think about how people shouldn’t know about divinity and such creatures, then I think that’s a pretty valid way of communication,” Youngkyun shrugged.

“Okay, but how desperate do you have to be to see a rainbow or a white feather and think that an angel is trying to communicate with you?”

“I think that people who are looking for signs will find them and maybe some of them are really put there by angels, and people feel comforted by that,” Youngkyun smiled.

“So I’m guessing your consensus for this episode is that angels totally exist and everything I said was true?” Chanhee asked just to make sure and to finish the episode sooner. He didn’t show it but the boy was _fuming_. Of course, he said things that went against Youngkyun’s beliefs in the episodes that the older narrated but in this case, it was completely unnecessary - they were kind of on the same side. After all, Chanhee had talked about something Youngkyun actually believed in, so he shouldn’t have had so many objections. It’s not like he knew more than Chanhee who had done all the research.

“They do exist and maybe not everything you said was true but most of it, definitely,” Youngkyun nodded.”

“Well, I remain sceptical as always. Supernatural beings are not quite my schtick so angels if you’re real, hit me up, let me know. But don’t show up as a rainbow ‘cause that’s just nature,” Chanhee rolled his eyes and laughed. He was holding on to the last bits of composure he had left.

“Goodbye and see you in the next episode!”

“Bye!” Chanhee got up and turned off the camera. “What the fuck, Youngkyun?”

“Huh?” the older stared at Chanhee in confusion. He had no idea what had caused the sudden snap.

“I was trying to make a good episode and every time I spoke, apparently I had my information wrong or something in your eyes. Like, sorry, I tried?” Chanhee let out the feelings he had been holding in himself for ages. “I may not believe in ghosts and demons, and whatever but I never doubt the information you’re telling or try to seem smarter than you by trying to correct you.”

“That’s not how I meant it, Chanhee,” Youngkyun had a mix of confusion, sadness and sorry in his eyes. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. We can refilm the video if you’d like that?” Youngkyun offered, trying to make the situation right again.

“I’m just going to sleep,” Chanhee shot one last angry look at Youngkyun and left the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i might or might not have forgotten that i have to update ksjdhfd anyway, follow me on twt: @hwiyoungyang   
or as me those q's on curiouscat: @markhyuckstea  
also i might start posting a norenmin thing soon ;)


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